Azeez Al-Shaair is finally on the NFL Top 100, and the Houston Texans linebacker made the cut in a way that should mean something even if the number beside his name feels a little light.
The league has started rolling out its player-voted rankings ahead of the 2026 season, and Al-Shaair is the Texans’ first player to surface on the list. For the first time in his career, the veteran linebacker landed on the Top 100 - but he came in at No. 92.
That placement comes with plenty of praise attached. NFL.com’s Grant Gordon called Al-Shaair a “crucial cog” in Houston’s defense and pointed to exactly why he drew votes around the league.
“The pedal-to-the-metal linebacker eclipsed 100 tackles for the third time in his seven-season NFL career,” Gordon wrote. “A versatile backer who shined against the run, Al-Shaair showed himself to be a crucial cog in one of the NFL’s most vaunted defenses. As Houston finished as the No. 1 total D, Al-Shaair finished as the team’s top tackler and his two picks were the only interceptions from a non-defensive back on the squad.”
The recognition is deserved. The question is whether 92 is low for a player who does so much more than pile up tackles.
Al-Shaair isn’t just a productive linebacker. He’s the quarterback of the Texans’ defense, the guy handling coverages, getting teammates lined up before the snap, and serving as a captain on a unit that already has no shortage of leadership. He’s also a centerpiece in one of the league’s best defenses, which makes his influence impossible to reduce to one stat line.
The tackle totals jump off the page, and they’re a big reason he’s now a first-time Pro Bowler and a first-time NFL Top 100 selection. But the full picture goes beyond the numbers. In Houston’s wide-nine front, the linebacker group is often asked to cover a lot of ground with only two players on the field, and not many defenders can handle that kind of job at an elite level.
Al-Shaair has done it for the Texans over the last two seasons, earning the team’s trust in a major way. That trust only grew when he signed the lucrative contract extension earlier this summer, which keeps him in Houston for this year and the next three after that.
There’s still more of the NFL’s list to come, since only spots 83 through 100 have been revealed so far. So the full picture isn’t in yet. Even so, it’s not hard to look at what Al-Shaair brings and wonder how many players ahead of him can match that kind of impact.
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