Arian Foster: The Respect He Deserves

      Widely known as "The Most Interesting Man In The NFL", Arian Foster is poised for another standout year this upcoming football season and I will be the first to say that I can't wait to see what he has in store for us. In what many considered a down year for the star RB last year, he still ranked among the best in rushing yards and led the league in rushing TDs. Take that in; Foster led the league in rushing TDs in a "down year." Forced to shoulder a large load of the offense last year, Foster saw his carries shoot up while seeing a slight dip in his YPC. This can easily be conceived as Foster falling off but I believe this is far from the truth. For anyone who paid any attention to the Texans last season, it was clear that we had some big holes to fill on the O-Line. Be it injury or just plain ineptitude, the line didn't perform nearly as well as the past two years and it took a toll on Foster's game. It certainly didn't help that we were trying to work in a bunch of new guys and rookies such as Brandon Brooks. Thank God for the savior of that line, our dearest Duane Brown. The zone scheme that the Texans used so effectively in the past couple of years wasn't up to par and Foster was left with the task of attempting to makeup the difference. The YPC drop can also be attributed to some of Kubiak's head-scratching play calling, such as the repeated attempts to run the ball on 3rd and long to no avail.

      Foster seems to have been fueled by the numerous criticisms of last season and he has been in an intense offseason training program with his brother Abdul. To go to even greater lengths to get better, Foster ditched his Twitter account in favor of focusing on this upcoming season. He has been widely known as one of the best Twitter personalities, if not the absolute best (he was the best, argue all you want) in the NFL. It was widely reported last season that Foster had become vegan and this turned out to be true. Whether the vegan decision affected his performance is a conclusion for you to come to, but personally I believe the reduced protein/nutrition that comes along with ditching meat affected his performance negatively. To the joy of many Texans fans, myself included, Foster has announced that he has left his vegan ways behind and he has gone back to eating like a normal human being should eat. I can only imagine that he will be in better shape for this upcoming season and it will properly supplement his rigorous offseason training in a way that a vegan diet could not. Instead of using the offseason as a time to goof off and enjoy himself as the rest of the NFL does by and large, Foster has taken steps to take his game to an even higher level. All of these signs point towards a stellar year for the undrafted running back that we have grown to adore here in Houston. 

      Although some of the pundits and fair-weather Texans fans have begun to write Foster off as a RB in decline, his peers completely disagree with this pathetic perception. In a poll conducted strictly of his peers in the NFL, the official "Top 100 Players of 2013" poll had our beloved back coming in at #8 overall in the NFL out of any position. Any player, any position. I would love for someone to argue that his peers don't know best. To make it even more impressive he came in as the second rated back in the NFL only behind the android that is Adrian Peterson. This poll is a ranking system for players in the upcoming season so it goes to show that the rest of the NFL is on notice when it comes to Arian Foster running and catching the ball all over teams next season. Foster came in at #25 last year in this very same poll so it's good to see that he's finally starting to get the respect he deserves. Now its time for Foster to come out and show all of the naysayers that he's still just as elite as before, and my honest opinion is that he will have his best season yet. It's time to get excited Texans fans, it's time to get real excited.