Azeez Al-Shaair Redeems Himself From 2024 Suspension, Earns $54 Million Extension

Azeez Al-Shaair went from suspension to extension in the span of two years.

Al-Shaair was suspended for three games for a late hit on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence late in 2024. But he redeemed himself, becoming one of the leaders of the NFL’s top-ranked defense, and was rewarded with a three-year, $54 million contract last week.

Speaking to reporters at the Texans’ facility on Friday, Al-Shaair thanked the organization for standing by him at his low point and allowing him to earn the extension.

“There’s a verse in the Quran where it says that with hardship comes ease, not before or after, but almost simultaneous. And I think my entire life, everything that I’ve endured up until this point, has been uh a true testament of that,” Al-Shaair said.

“Just the back and forth between going through different trials, different adversities. But in the same midst of that, being grateful for the things that I have and continuing to push forward and seeing the blessings that God [has] blessed me with. It feels surreal. It really does feel surreal, everything that I went through to be at this point.”

Al-Shaair thanked the McNair family, who own the Texans; general manager Nick Caserio; head coach DeMeco Ryans; his agent; his former teammates throughout his career; and his family, especially his mother.

An undrafted free agent with the San Francisco 49ers in 2019, Al-Shaair spent his first four seasons with the team; he started intermittently and had his best season in 2021. He appeared in 13 games, with 102 total tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, a forced fumble, 2 recoveries, 5 passes defended, and an interception.

He signed a one-year deal with the Tennessee Titans in 2023. He started all 17 games and led the team with 163 tackles, 2 sacks, 9 TFLs, a fumble recovery, and 4 passes defended.

He signed a three-year deal with the Texans in 2024. But that season, he was punished for three separate incidents: first, in week 2, for punching Chicago Bears running back Roschon Johnson in a sideline fight; then, in week 12, he was fined for a late hit on Tennessee Titans running back Tony Pollard. In week 13, he was suspended after a late hit on Lawrence, who was sliding down after a run. The hit caused a concussion that ended Lawrence’s season.

The hit and the controversy that followed put Al-Shaair at a low point.

“It was a really challenging time in my life, just trying to navigate through how I could be in a situation where people are attacking me as a man, my character, for something that I did on the football field that literally happens in like a split second. People get into car accidents, and it’s like, ‘You’re at fault.’ ‘You’re at fault.’ ‘Oh man, it happened so fast.’ That’s what football is like. It’s literally split-second decisions,” Al-Shaair said.

“And to think I worked my butt off for six years up to that point, to get myself even in that position—to be here, to to be a Texan, and to be the leader of a defense—so when all that stuff went down, to see like the way people were talking about me as a person, and as a player, it hurt ’cause I just felt like man everything just kind of came crumbling down and it wasn’t a reflection of who I see myself as or who I try to be.

“And I think just to see how, truthfully, how broken I was, ’cause I was truly just broken. Like my heart was broken. My mother could tell you, everybody who’s here can tell you, I was in an extremely, extremely low, dark place.”

Al-Shaair leaned on the people he saw most often: the training staff and the rehab doctor (he was dealing with an injury of his own at the time).

“I think the conversations that I had on a daily basis with people just pouring into me, I needed it way more than they know. … I really leaned in on all these other people who did more than their job required them to do, to try to make sure I was in a good place mentally, and so [I’m] just grateful,” Al-Shaair said.