Arian Foster Hurt, Texans Still Have Giant Question to be Answered
By Joe Wedra
Arian Foster is hurt. The Texans are in trouble.
Whether you possess a side in Houston Texans fandom or not, the two sentences above can’t be refuted.
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Reports from camp regarding Foster’s potential upcoming surgery only paint a portion of the story that relates to the team’s 2015 campaign. Murkiness lies heavily at the quarterback position, enough to challenge the questioning surrounding Foster’s setback.
Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett will battle it out in a duel for the QB1 job, a race that will be ran to — in some minds — decide between the lesser of two projects.
It’s easy to take a look at Hoyer and see potential.
He didn’t perform horribly with Cleveland and in the right system it’s possible he could thrive. However, his rise to the top as a starting quarterback in the NFL seems far-fetched.
For Mallett, weapons at the receiver spot might be a crucial crutch if he wants to navigate through 16 games with any chance at a playoff run. DeAndre Hopkins and Cecil Shorts can play good football; Jaelen Strong could provide surprising help across the field as well.
Arian Foster averaged 4.8 yards per carry last season. All other Texans players combined to average 3.1 yards per carry,
— trey wingo (@wingoz) August 4, 2015
In any spot, Houston’s going to need a running attack akin to the one we saw aide Andy Dalton through 2014. The help of Jeremy Hill and Gio Bernard can’t be underestimated as help to keep Marvin Lewis in town. This year, the light could shine on Alfred Blue and Chris Polk.
Heck, we could throw in Chris Johnson, Darren Sproles or Ray Rice to the mix once week one rolls around.
Visions of a 2013 season repeat linger, and as Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle writes, the worries at the QB spot are “justified”:
"What is an otherwise intelligent person supposed to think when an otherwise intelligent person such as Bill O’Brien – he graduated from Brown University, for goodness sakes – makes the case that Bryan Hoyer and Ryan Mallett are two good NFL quarterbacks? …Yes, fans and media have serious doubts about the Hoyer-Mallett tandem being a quality one. We would be fools not to."
You can’t say Solomon is wrong.
The history under center in Houston has been indisputably shaky.
While we make a scene about Foster’s situation, perhaps it’s the conundrum at quarterback that should have locals in Houston shaking in their boots.