Ex-49er involved in cheap shot hit on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence

Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, a member of the San Francisco 49ers from 2019 to 2022, hit Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence hard in Week 13's contest. Many are calling the hit a cheap shot.

The video of the hit can be watched below, courtesy Adam Schefter of ESPN:

As can be seen from the video, Lawrence slides at the end of a run, and Al-Shaair comes in hard and hits Lawrence in the head as he is sliding. Lawrence is clearly dazed lying on the ground, and fellow Jags players were quick to go after Al-Shaair to defend their quarterback.

Defenders are often in a tough position when quarterbacks slide because they have to stop their momentum quickly and ease up when usually they are conditioned to hit a guy hard. But this is an instance where it seems pretty clear that Lawrence was in the process of sliding and was giving himself up. One never wants to say a player is intentionally trying to injure another player, but this is a case where Al-Shaair, no matter his motives, simply has to ease up and not hit Lawrence high like that.

Al-Shaair's cheap shot led to a scrum between the two teams that spilled over onto Jacksonville's bench. In a divisional game between two AFC South teams like the Texans and Jaguars, tensions are already going to be running high. When you add in a bad hit like that it is only natural that those tensions are going to boil over.

Niners fans will remember Al-Shaair as a solid linebacker during his time with San Francisco. He played second fiddle to Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw but has been able to shine in a more prominent role with the Tennessee Titans in 2023 and Houston this season. He never had a reputation for being dirty when he was on the Niners, so perhaps this is just an instance where he got carried away in the heat of the moment and made a hit that he should not have.

One can only hope that Lawrence will be okay and that the tensions will not result in retaliatory acts by Jacksonville against any players on the Texans. Al-Shaair is a good player, but it seems like the ex-Niner just made a bad mistake at the wrong time with a hit that did not look good.

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