Arian Foster Injury: Return of Star RB Solidifies Texans as AFC South Favorites

It's been a good couple of days for the Houston Texans. Even without Arian Foster, they manhandled the Colts in a 34-7 opening week win.

As we near the Week 2 games, Nick Scurfield, writer and blogger for HoustonTexans.com, tweets that Foster is set to play this Sunday against the Dolphins.

The Texans need to use Foster carefully, however. Still, if he remains on the field, the Texans will cruise to a division title this year.

The only chance that the Jaguars, Titans or Colts (without Peyton Manning) had at beating the Texans this season was if their big three of Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson and Foster were off the field for a significant amount of time.

Houston was obviously good enough in their opener, but they were still sloppy at times, particularly when it came to ball protection. Foster will do a lot to ease that burden.

But again, Foster will need to be handled with care; hamstring injuries are not to be rushed back from.

With other injuries, you can return early and not really risk worsening the injury. Your play may not be especially great, but the risk of a more serious injury is not too significant.

That's not the case with hamstrings, and that's why Foster didn't play in the opener. But if the Texans can ease him back into action, then there's really nothing to keep them from winning the AFC South.

The Jaguars looked impressive in their opener, but is Luke McCown really a quarterback that anyone should have a lot of confidence in? The receivers are improved, but someone has to get them the ball. Unless something dramatically changes, Jacksonville will struggle.

The Titans, meanwhile, looked awful in the opening week, as Matt Hasselbeck is well past his prime. Tennessee won't be able to move the ball against defenses that are keyed on Chris Johnson.

The Colts still have talent, but are very clearly a lost team. That may change at some point, but the hole will be too deep.

That leaves the Texans. Even Without Foster, the division should go to Houston. When Foster's on the field, there is no reason to think Houston won't cruise to the playoffs.