For the first time since inking a total of six free agents this offseason, Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon touched on each this weekend while down at the NFL owners meetings.
One free-agent signing Carthon is quite familiar with from his days with the San Francisco 49ers is linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who Tennessee inked to a one-year, $5 million deal to take over a starting role on defense.
“He’s a maniac on the grass, but one of the most calming and even-keel, humble spirits that you’ll meet off the field,” Carthon said of Al-Shaair, according to Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.
“Very thoughtful, very conscientious. I’m not going to be surprised if he logged the most community service hours of guys on the team. What I love about Azeez is the tenacity he plays with. He is full-tilt every single snap. He is a guy that at this phase of his career, he really wants to step into a leadership role. … He really wants to embrace being a leader.”
We saw a bit of Al-Shaair’s personality during his introductory presser when he jokingly roasted Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky then he asked about the linebacker’s weight, which is a bit light at 228.
“Do I want to be heavier? Well, hopefully I could be heavy but just not like you,” he joked. “I’m just playing. I’m giving you a hard time.”
Al-Shaair was buried behind two elite linebackers during his days with the Niners and is no doubt part of the “untapped potential” signings Carthon talked about while down at the owners meetings.
“I think the overarching view of the guys that we all brought in is every guy has starter-level ability, they just haven’t had the opportunity to be full-time starters,” Carthon said of the group he’s signed. “So, each of these guys have logged starts here and there but they’ve never been full-time starters. And they’re guys we believe in that can become starters in our league.”
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