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.
Can you explain why raising the guarantee would lead to a pay cut?
By spreading the guarantee out over more years (ex. $12 million over 2 years vs $9 million over 1 year), you can lower the current salary for greater roster flexibility.
Because they could resign him to more years, with future guarantees and lower next years number. Basically resign him
Picture “AAV” in relation to the CBT, goat. Like these guys said, giving more money but spread out over more contracted seasons, lowering his AAV but increasing the haul.
What a dummy.
Well … bye
I’d cut him in the Offseason.
QBs have to take some responsibility for their own safety. If they are going to pretend to be RBs then they have to be prepared to pay the price. Gunner Stockton took a hit in that SEC championship game that was more wicked than the hit on Lawrence but he was fair game and the officials were correct in not calling a targeting penalty. link to youtube.com