Azeez Al-Shaair‘s hit on Trevor Lawrence may cost him a lot more than the three game checks he won’t receive while suspended.
Al-Shaair is already missing out on $338k as a result of his three-game suspension, and the impact in 2025 could be far greater. Language in his three-year, $34MM deal with the Texans voids the guarantee on his $9MM base salary next season if the linebacker is suspended for more than two games due to an “on-the-field football act,” per CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones.
Al-Shaair’s suspension was upheld on appeal, voiding next year’s guarantees and giving Houston the option to release him after this season with cap savings of $9MM and a dead cap hit of $2.2MM in 2025.
However, Houston seems unlikely to take that path, especially after Texans general manager Nick Caserio backed his player and blasted the suspension as “embarrassing” last week. Al-Shaair remains in the team’s plans, per Jones, meaning that he should still be able to earn all $9MM of his 2025 base salary.
The Texans are not able to unilaterally reinstate the guarantees, even if they want to. They could try to leverage the situation into a contract renegotiation with Al-Shaair by offering him more guaranteed money in return for a pay cut, but doing so would risk ruining his relationship with the franchise.
Instead, Houston is most likely to keep Al-Shaair on the roster with his contract untouched, allowing him to collect his full $9MM salary next year to nullify the impact of the voided guarantees.