Arian Foster: A Safe Start for Your Fantasy Team or Risky Chance?

If Arian Foster is on your team, you undoubtedly drafted him in the first round and probably pretty high up.  No one can go too far in fantasy football without their horses pulling the load, so it is understandable that every owner would want to put him back in the lineup as soon as possible. 

However, it may be worthwhile to look at your lineup a little more carefully.  It is fair to assume that Foster is healthy enough to not worry about him coming out of the game due to injury, but if he splits his carries with Tate there may be better options for you on your bench.  Foster averaged about 100 yards rushing, one touchdown and 35 yards receiving.  If you cut that in half and he doesn't get that TD, that puts him at about eight points for Week 2 in a standard scoring league.  There are numerous backs out there who should project for more than eight points this week.  At this point it all depends on who you have on your bench.  For example, I am playing against Foster this week in one of my leagues and the other guy is currently starting Ryan Mathews where Foster would be starting. 

For me personally, I would take my chances with Foster instead of starting Mathews.  Not only has Mathews yet to prove anything to anyone, most notably the brass in San Diego (followed closely in importance by me), but he is splitting carries with Mike Tolbert and if I have to split carries I want the half that Foster is going to have.  Also, there is a good chance that the "split" that Gary Kubiak has in mind is more of a 60/40 or so leaning towards Foster rather than a true 50/50 split.  This might depend on what the score looks like at the end of the second or third quarter, but there is almost no way to accurately project that for this game.

In the end, all fantasy columns leave a little something to be desired because all fantasy leagues, scoring and matchups are a little bit different.  If you have any specific questions feel free to ask away in the comment section below.