Houston Texans linebacker Christian Harris practiced with his teammates on Monday for the first time since the NFL season started.
If the former Alabama linebacker makes its back to the playing field on Sunday, it will be just in time for the Texans, who have lost starting weakside linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair to a three-game NFL suspension.
RELATED:TEXAS GM ON NFL DISCIPLINE: WHAT ABOUT BRIAN BRANCH?
A calf injured plagued Harris throughout training camp as he tried to prepare for his third season, and he wasn’t ready to play when the 2024 campaign kicked off.
Harris has spent Houston’s first 13 games on injured reserve. But the Texans have now designated him to return, and toward that objective, Harris started practicing again on Monday.
Houston coach DeMeco Ryans said the coaching staff would assess the linebacker this week to evaluate if Harris could help the Texans in Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins.
“Christian’s done an outstanding job of working off to the side,” Ryans said on Monday, “and, again, our strength-and-conditioning staff, our sports-performance staff have done a great job of working with Christian. Just seeing him back out, moving around, he looks like himself physically moving around. Missing a lot of football, it’s just a matter of him getting back in and getting those mental reps. Nothing can help you do football except playing football, so he just has to get out there and get those physical reps of hearing a call, getting lined up. But physically he looks like he’s in a really good spot.”
In Harris’ rookie season, Houston posted a 3-13-1 record in 2022. The third-round draft pick played in 12 games and registered 74 tackles.
In Ryans’ first season as the Texans coach, Harris played in 16 regular-season games, recorded 101 tackles and led the Texans with 65 solo stops as Houston rose to a 10-7 record in 2023.
By winning the AFC South, the Texans qualified for the playoffs. Houston opened the postseason with a 45-14 victory over the Cleveland Browns before a 34-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens ended the Texans’ season.
Against the Browns, Harris had eight tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack and one interception. When Harris picked off Cleveland quarterback Joe Flacco, he ran 36 yards for his first NFL touchdown.
Harris became the seventh player to record a pick-six and a sack in the same playoff game and the first to do so since Texans defensive end J.J Watt in a 31-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 7, 2012.
The NFL suspended Al-Shaair after he was ejected from Houston’s previous game for a late hit on Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence in a 23-20 victory over the Jaguars on Dec. 1.
Al-Shaair is the Texans’ second-leading tackler this season with 68. Houston’s leading tackler is another former Alabama linebacker, Henry To’oTo’o, with 76.
At 8-5, the Texans have a two-game lead in the AFC South standings with four games remaining in the regular season.
The Texans and the Dolphins will square off at noon CST Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OURNFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at@AMarkG1.