Azeez Al-Shaair goes from "broken" to near the top of the market at his position

It's been quite a year for Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair. The low point came after a three-game suspension in December 2024 for a hit delivered to Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, sparking a brawl. The high point came this week, when Al-Shaair signed a three-year extension with an average of $18 million per year.

Al-Shaair addressed the differences between the low point and the high point in the press conference announcing his new contract.

“I think, when I reflect back to that time, 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 happens in a split second," Al-Shaair told reporters. "People get into car accidents and it’s like, ‘You’re at fault, you’re at fault. Oh, it happened so fast.’ That’s what football is, it’s split-second decisions. I worked my butt off for six years up to that point to even get myself in that position, to be here, to be a Texan and to be the leader of a defense. When all that stuff went down, to see the way people were talking about me as a person and as a player, it hurt because I just felt like everything kind of came crumbling down and it wasn’t a reflection of who I see myself as or who I try to be.

"To see, truthfully, how broken I was because I was truly broken. My heart was broken; my mother could tell you. Everybody who is here that I interacted with could tell you, I was in an extremely, extremely low, dark place.

"I think it’s crazy because some of the people that I leaned in on the most were people that I had to work with every single day. The trainers and the staff, just to get back. 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. A lot of the people in this building poured into me and their job description might have been strength coach, or it might have been athletic trainer or rehab guy. I was dealing with an injury. I was dealing with all the off-the-field stuff and the stuff with the Trevor Lawrence stuff and the suspension and all of it, and people pretty much going for my character. 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. I’m so just grateful."