Pittsburgh’s inside linebacker room has become the story of its 2026 offseason, and not in a good way. As training camp approaches, the Steelers still haven’t added a proven veteran behind Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson — and one name keeps surfacing as the obvious remedy: Bobby Wagner.
Mike McCarthy took over as Pittsburgh’s head coach this offseason, and he inherited a roster that looks nothing like the ones he built in Dallas. Two spots stand out as unresolved. But the most pressing is the second linebacker job next to Queen.
Why Off-Ball Linebacker Is Pittsburgh’s Biggest Weakness
ESPN’s Mike Clay ranked all 32 NFL rosters ahead of the season and pegged the Steelers at No. 19 overall — third in the AFC North. The culprit wasn’t the offense or the pass rush. It was the inside linebacker duo. According to ESPN, Queen and Wilson return as the starters even after Pittsburgh finished 27th in run stop win rate last season, and Queen himself slipped to 61st among 67 qualified off-ball linebackers in PFF grade — down from 54th out of 69 the year before.
That’s not a small step back. That’s a player trending the wrong direction at the worst possible time.
Teams that can’t stop the run pay for it every single week. Opposing offenses lean on the ground game to control the clock, and once a defense proves it can’t hold up there, play-action becomes a weapon too. Pittsburgh’s choices become limited: bleed clock and lose, or sell out against the run and get gashed through the air. The Steelers actually finished middle of the pack against the run last year in total yards allowed, but their pass defense cratered to 29th in the league. Queen has to be better.
He’s only 26, still theoretically in his athletic prime, and made back-to-back Pro Bowls in 2023 and 2024. That makes last season’s dip more alarming, not less. The raw counting stats — 120 tackles, eight for loss — read fine on the surface. But the grade behind them says otherwise, and it suggests he needs real help next to him, not just better scheme.
Queen still has believers around the league. ESPN’s survey of executives, coaches and scouts gave him honorable mention among the league’s top off-ball linebackers, with one AFC personnel evaluator praising his speed and strength while flagging the same issue Pittsburgh saw on tape. New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham now inherits the job of getting Queen’s tools and his production to finally match up.
Payton Wilson isn’t off the hook either. He totaled 126 tackles last season with six for loss and played all 17 games — but started only four, and multiple Pittsburgh beat reporters have called 2026 a make-or-break year for him. Steelers insider Mark Kaboly put it bluntly on 93.7 The Fan: if Wilson doesn’t take the leap this season, “then it’s never gonna be Payton Wilson.”
| Linebacker | 2025 Tackles | TFL | PFF Rank (Off-Ball LB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick Queen | 120 | 8 | 61st of 67 |
| Payton Wilson | 126 | 6 | Started 4 of 17 games |
Bobby Wagner Makes Too Much Sense to Ignore
If the Steelers want a real playoff push, they need to get tougher against the run without gutting their pass defense further. That’s exactly the profile Bobby Wagner still offers at 36 years old, even in his 14th NFL season.
Wagner is unsigned as of this writing, and has been since Washington let him walk in free agency this offseason. He’s coming off a 2025 season in which he played 1,132 defensive snaps for the Commanders and posted a 78.6 overall PFF grade — including a 90.3 run-defense grade that ranked fifth among linebackers, per Pro Football Focus data cited by Heavy.com. He’s produced 100-plus tackles in 14 straight seasons. That kind of run-stopping consistency is precisely what Pittsburgh’s front seven is missing next to Queen and Wilson.
Coverage is where his game has genuinely slipped. USA Today’s Tyler Dragon flagged that directly, writing that age is working against the 36-year-old and it’s a surprise he’s still on the market, but he remains a tackling standout with a nose for the ball who could save his legs for a playoff run where his instincts and leadership matter most.
Pittsburgh isn’t the only team connected to him. Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox listed Wagner among the best remaining free agents ahead of camp and named the Dallas Cowboys as the most logical landing spot given their own inside linebacker issues, though the same Bleacher Report piece also names the Steelers among the logical fits, according to Yardbarker’s republication of that list. Nothing suggests a deal is close with anyone. This is speculation and analyst projection, not a done deal — and it should be read that way.
The fit for Pittsburgh isn’t about handing Wagner every snap. It’s about flexibility. Against run-heavy offenses or clock-control situations, Wagner could rotate in and take pressure off Queen and Wilson. Against pass-heavy teams, or once the Steelers have a lead late, he could come off the field entirely, saving his legs for the moments that matter most in December and January.
The real question is contract fit. Wagner played last season on a one-year, $9 million deal in Washington, and Spotrac projects his open-market value now sits closer to $7.7 million on a one-year deal. Whether a soon-to-be Hall of Famer wants to accept a part-time role at that stage of his payday career is unclear — but as a rotational piece and postseason insurance policy, he checks the boxes Pittsburgh needs checked.
The Steelers’ roster isn’t deep enough to survive another season of poor run defense, not with Aaron Rodgers, at 42, trying to close out his career on a winning note. If Pittsburgh wants a real shot in January, fixing this position before Week 1 has to be the priority.
