I guess you can get pumped up about the Steelers’ 2024 offseason, after all.

Not even two days after the news broke that Pittsburgh came to terms on a one-year deal with quarterback Russell Wilson, and just 24 hours after signing a punter, it was reported on Tuesday afternoon that the organization had agreed to terms on a three-year deal with Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen.

What has become of these Steelers offseasons? It’s like going from a flip phone to a smartphone. Sure, everyone else had been using smartphones for years, and you were getting along just fine with your flip phone, but you mean to tell me that I can surf the net while shopping at Giant Eagle?

Anyway, so this is what modern NFL transactions feel like, huh?

Not only did the Steelers sign a linebacker, but they signed an inside linebacker. Not only is Queen an inside linebacker, but he was arguably the best one on the market heading into free agency. Heck, screw it, he was the best one.

What I like about the move is it fills a need at a position the Steelers have been futility trying to fix since Ryan Shazier’s devastating spinal injury at the end of the 2017 campaign. When I say “fills a need,” I mean it. I usually take fans and experts to task when they talk in absolutes about free agents and draft picks, but that’s because the right phrase should almost always be “addresses a need.”

When Pittsburgh signed veteran Jon Bostic during the 2018 offseason, that was a move that addressed a need at inside linebacker. When the Steelers traded for Joe Schobert in the summer of 2021, that transaction addressed a need at inside linebacker.

Heck, when the Steelers got the entire city excited by moving up in the 2019 NFL Draft and taking Devin Bush with the 10th pick, that was a move that addressed a need at inside linebacker.

Every move that took place at the position between 2018 and Tuesday afternoon–I could write an entire article that covers every single one of them–addressed a need.

Nothing is filled until it’s filled, not even last offseason when Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Kwon Alexander were signed to deals. As it turned out, those three did an admirable job filling the need at inside linebacker before two of them–Holcomb and Alexander–suffered season-ending injuries.

Alexander is a free agent. As for Holcomb? The knee injury that ended his 2023 campaign may have been serious enough to end his career.

What would the Steelers do? Would they take a familiar route and sign someone on par with Bostic, Schobert, Holcomb and Alexander? They were fine players–some finer than others–but worlds below where Shazier was at his peak.

In other words, would the Steelers go after a second or third-tier free-agent inside linebacker?

No, they went after a top-tier guy and got him. They signed Queen to a contract worth $41 million. That’s an example of a huge splash. That’s what the Batmans at the position earn, and not the Robins.

Sure, there is a bit of a concern that Queen was more of a Robin in Baltimore and didn’t even morph into that role until the Ravens traded for Roquan Smith during the 2022 regular season.

Queen was a first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, and the Ravens decided not to pick up his fifth-year option. How did he respond? Let’s just say he handled the news a little better than Bush, who reacted to a similar scenario by having an underwhelming fourth year in Pittsburgh before leaving and then talking trash about his old team on social media as a member of the Seahawks late last year.

No, Queen, who is blessed with speed, intensity and a willingness to hit people hard, did his talking with his play. He recorded a career-high 133 tackles in 2023 and made his first Pro Bowl. He also earned Second-team All-Pro honors.

There’s a right way to respond to career adversity and there’s a wrong way to respond to career adversity.

Queen chose the way that would ultimately make him the richest free-agent signing in Steelers history.

Now, Queen will come to Pittsburgh as the Batman of the inside linebacker corps. The Steelers are betting big on his ability to don that uniform every Sunday for the next few years. Queen will turn 25 in August, which means he is just entering the prime of his football career.

Kudos to the Steelers for being aggressive in the 2019 NFL Draft. They were surely hoping Bush would be the inside linebacker they’d be giving a huge contract to one day.

It didn’t happen, but you have to give credit to Omar Khan and Co. for recognizing that you can’t replace an extraordinary talent unless you’re willing to make an extraordinary move.

The first extraordinary move didn’t work. None of the lesser moves really did, either.

My money–and the Steelers’ money–says the extraordinary move to sign Patrick Queen will finally be the one that fills the huge need at inside linebacker.