Azeez Al‑Shaair is heading from undrafted long shot to all star, earning his first Pro Bowl nod Tuesday and joining Will Anderson Jr., Nico Collins and Derek Stingley Jr. as the Houston Texans landed four players on the 2026 Pro Bowl roster. The haul puts an exclamation point on a breakout run for a defense that has hovered near the top of the league in both yards and points allowed, and it cements Al‑Shaair as one of the voices of the locker room and the traffic cop in the middle of the field.
The Texans confirmed the quartet in a team release, noting that Anderson, Collins and Stingley were voted Pro Bowl starters while Al‑Shaair picked up his first career selection. The same announcement highlighted season snapshots for each player and confirmed that the Pro Bowl Games are set for Super Bowl week in San Francisco, according to Houston Texans.
The NFL’s official roster lists all four Texans on the AFC side and lays out the full conference lineup for the 2026 Pro Bowl Games. The league describes the event as a week of skills competitions that wraps with a televised flag football showdown on February 3 from San Francisco’s Moscone Center, per NFL.com.
Al‑Shaair’s Rise From Undrafted To Defensive Quarterback
Al‑Shaair entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Florida Atlantic and has since worked his way into a central role, starting 14 games this season. He leads Houston with 96 tackles and has posted a career high eight passes defensed, plus an interception and a fumble recovery. Coaches have leaned on him as a team captain and the primary on field communicator for the defense. The one smudge on his year came via a $17,389 fine for an unflagged hit earlier in the season, as reported by Click2Houston.
Anderson’s Surge, Collins’ Consistency And Stingley’s Shutdown Season
Will Anderson Jr. turned his edge into a starting Pro Bowl spot in just his latest breakout. He has racked up a career high 11.5 sacks and 17 tackles for loss, and the Texans cited Next Gen Stats that credit him with 79 quarterback pressures and a 20.9 percent pressure rate. Those numbers help explain why opposing quarterbacks have looked so uncomfortable against Houston’s front this year, according to Houston Texans.
On the other side of the ball, Nico Collins keeps climbing the franchise record book. He has 1,060 receiving yards through 14 games and is the first Texans wideout since DeAndre Hopkins to earn back to back Pro Bowl trips. He also joins Hopkins and Andre Johnson as the only players in team history with three straight 1,000 yard seasons. Derek Stingley Jr. backed up his reputation as a lockdown corner with 13 passes defensed and four interceptions, including his first career pick six. Those milestones, and the broader context of Houston’s defensive turnaround, were detailed by the Houston Chronicle.
The Texans also landed three defenders as Pro Bowl alternates: safeties Calen Bullock and Jalen Pitre and cornerback Kamari Lassiter, a sign that the depth chart is filling up with recognizable names. The league’s roster release and event schedule underline that the Pro Bowl Games are built as a TV first product, and many players on deep playoff teams routinely pass on the flag football finale if their clubs are still alive in January, per NFL.com. For now, Houston fans can enjoy the four official nods and quietly hope the postseason run is long enough that their stars never actually make it to San Francisco.
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