Arian Foster's Injury: Severe Concern for Fantasy Owners, Not Texans Fans

Arian Foster is injured for the second time during this brief preseason and that could be a cause for concern for some people.  If you were lucky (or unlucky) enough to get the first pick of your fantasy football draft there is a good chance that you have Arian Foster anchoring your team and there is a good chance that you are freaking out about his hamstring injury.  You should be.  There are three key reasons why fantasy owners might be worried about their new team, but one of those reasons will have Texans fans sleeping easy.

First and foremost, Texans fans feel that they can run the ball with or without Arian Foster, not to say that Derrick Ward and Ben Tate are on the same level as Foster, but they can get the job done.  There are a couple of reasons why Texans fans believe that.  Tate and Ward have both looked great in the preseason.  Tate has fully recovered from an ankle injury that kept him out all of last season after the Texans drafted him in the second round of the 2010 draft.  While Tate was healing Ward backed up Foster last year and averaged 6.3 ypc. 

However, what is more important than either of those is that Kubiak finally has his offensive line rolling with the zone blocking scheme that he learned from Mike Shanahan.  There is a general feeling that between the talents of Ward and Tate and the system that produced 10 different leading rushers in 11 years in Denver, the loss of Arian Foster (in the short term) is no excuse for a loss for the team.  If that is the case then the Texans will not rush Foster back from injury just to make sure that he is there week one.

What should be more of a concern for Foster’s fantasy owners is the fact that hamstring injuries are notorious for hanging around for a long time.  He has already “recovered” from a hamstring injury in the same leg but obviously he was not 100%. 

You also know that Foster is not the type of back who will be prudent and tell the coaching staff when something is not right.  Foster finished the season last year with a torn meniscus, which leads you to believe that he won’t be taking care of injuries until they get so bad that he can no longer ignore it.  For some people Foster is tough, for some people he is taking a stupid risk by not taking care of his injuries.  In the end his performance will prove one group right.

Finally, and what may be most concerning for Foster’s fantasy football owners, is that for many backs a single season with 370 carries is the beginning of the end due to injury or otherwise.  Foster only had 327 carries but he also had 66 receptions which brings his total number of touches to 393. 

However, it’s not all doom and gloom.  On a closer inspection there are a few players that are simply warriors and can carry the load, but there are more players that can handle that type of pounding because they are younger.  For example, Erik Dickerson (who some say Foster runs like) in his rookie season had 390 carries and over 1800 yards and then followed that with an even better season with 379 carries and 2100 yards rushing. 

So far Foster looks fresh and hopefully his young legs will be able to handle the work load but if not there could be some very upset fantasy football owners.  Good luck to all you fantasy football owners and Houston Texans fans.