That was fast. Arian Foster is hurt, and it looks like he’ll probably miss at least a third of the season.
All through the offseason, we’ve all wrestled with this issue. He’s had some groin and hamstring injuries, and he just can’t seem to stay healthy. This is why I downgraded him to 9th among running backs in the magazine, even though his per-game projections indicate he’ll be better than C.J. Anderson, Adrian Peterson, Marshawn Lynch and Jeremy Hill.
I’ve been in on close to a half dozen mock drafts, and I’ve steered clear of Foster in all of them. Going more off gut than the numbers. I picked Jeremy Hill in front of Foster last year.
This time around, it’s a groin injury. Foster went down at the end of practice, and John McClain (the senior statesman among writers covering the team) says surgery will be require.
Foster won’t be ready for the season open, but “should be able to return at some point this season.”
That doesn’t sound particularly promising.
There’s the eight-game IR spot. That’s a possibility.
So the focus turns to Houston’s other running backs. Alfred Blue was the No. 2 back for last year. He had that one big game up in Cleveland, running for 156 yards on 36 carries, but otherwise was pretty unimpressive. He averaged only 3.1 yards per carry (Foster was up at 4.8).
They also have Chris Polk, who did some nice things in his brief run with the Eagles. My leaning is that Polk probably will move ahead of Blue and win that job. But we’ll see; the Eagles didn’t think too highly of Polk (they did, after all, let him go).
Other youngsters include Jonathan Grimes and Kenny Hilliard. Hilliard is the nephew of former Saints running back Dalton Hilliard.
Houston also, of course, could still make an addition to its backfield. Chris Johnson, Knowshon Moreno, Pierre Thomas, Shonn Greene, Ray Rice and Steven Jackson are all unemployed.
For now, I think Polk. But not a guy I’d select before the last round or two.
As for Foster, I think he’ll be outside my top 30 running backs when our revised rankings go out on Thursday.
—Ian Allan
