Player
Azeez Al-Shaair
LB · Texans
Azeez Al-Shaair: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
UDFA out of FAU to a 118-tackle ILB — every step earned on a one-year deal at a time.
TrendAl-Shaair by season
| Season | Team | Tackles | Asts | TFL | PDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | SF | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | SF | 21 | 13 | 1 | 2 |
| 2021 | SF | 58 | 50 | 9 | 5 |
| 2022 | SF | 23 | 30 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | TEN | 62 | 79 | 9 | 4 |
| 2024 | HOU | 41 | 32 | 7 | 3 |
| 2025 | HOU | 55 | 63 | 2 | 9 |
Al-Shaair went undrafted out of Florida Atlantic in 2019 — too small, too late, no combine invite. He spent 4 years carving out a role with the 49ers, hit unrestricted free agency in 2023, signed a one-year prove-it in Tennessee (141 tackles), and parlayed that into the 3-year, $34M deal with Houston that he's playing on now.
The 2025 line — 118 combined tackles, 9 PDs — is the best coverage season of his career.
542 career combined tackles — top-30 among LBs since 2019, and built mostly on prove-it deals.
MilestoneThrough 7 seasons, Al-Shaair has compiled 268 solo + 274 assists = 542 combined tackles, plus 29 TFL, 6.0 sacks, 23 PDs, and 5 forced fumbles. The aggregate volume is top-30 at the LB position over that span — remarkable for a player who spent his first two years as a special-teamer.
His 2023 with Tennessee (141 tackles in 17 games) was the breakout that re-priced him. The Texans have gotten 2 strong years out of him since.
2025 ball production: 9 PDs + 3 INTs — best coverage season of his career, by a mile.
SplitAl-Shaair PDs and INTs by season
| Season | PDs | INTs |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | 5 | 1 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 4 | 0 |
| 2024 | 3 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 3 |
Coverage is the part of an ILB's game that's hardest to project — Al-Shaair never showed it consistently until 2025, when he posted 9 pass defenses and 3 interceptions in one year. That's more PDs than he'd recorded in his prior 4 seasons combined.
For a 6'2" off-ball linebacker, 3 INTs in a season puts him in the top-15 at the position. The cherry on top: he's doing it as a former UDFA who wasn't on draft boards.
Pass defenses by season
| Season | PDs |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 4 |
| 2024 | 3 |
| 2025 | 9 |
2023 Tennessee tape: 141 tackles + 9 TFL on a one-year deal — exactly how he became a starter again.
RareHis 2023 season in Tennessee is the file every scout pulled up before the Texans wrote a check: 62 solo + 79 assist tackles for 141 combined, plus 9 TFL, 2.0 sacks, and 4 PDs. The combined-tackle number alone was top-10 at LB.
It all came on a one-year, $1.5M contract signed after the 49ers let him walk. The very next offseason, Houston gave him 3 years and $34M. The 2023 tape is one of the cleanest prove-it-deal-to-big-contract stories in recent ILB free agency.
In his 3 starter years (2023-25), he's averaged 96 tackles + 6.0 TFL + 5.3 PDs per season.
ComparisonAl-Shaair 3-year starter window
| Year | Combined Tk | TFL | PDs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 (TEN) | 141 | 9 | 4 |
| 2024 (HOU) | 73 | 7 | 3 |
| 2025 (HOU) | 118 | 2 | 9 |
| Avg | 110.7 | 6.0 | 5.3 |
Over the three seasons he's played as a full-time starter (2023-25), Al-Shaair has averaged 110.7 combined tackles, 6.0 TFL, and 5.3 pass defenses. The shape of his game has shifted year by year — TFL-heavy in 2023, lower volume in 2024, coverage-heavy in 2025 — but the floor is consistently high.
For a player who entered the league with zero draft capital, that 3-year average compares cleanly to recent second-round LB starters around the league.
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