Arian Foster

Texans can afford to place the franchise tag on him, or atleast match any offer from other teams.

But tired of hearing about getting Wallace that way don’t thunk he is worth the pick and having to pay him like a number one to be our number two

And you are not a zone team. Foster would not do as well for you as you think.

This offense has two very distinct running personalities. Generally we start with foster on a zone stretch to the left/right (most of the time to the right out of a jumbo). Walter is a 2nd receiver and usually lines up on that side, and is a tremendous blocker (that’s what he does best). This is effective against almost any defense because Winston and Brown are two of the best, if not that best, tackles in the league (Brown was rated as a top 3 this season while Winston was top 5-6). They almost always handle DE’s and OLB’s single handed while the we pull the left or right guard to cover the backside of the play, generally with a cut block.

This frees up vickers to open up to set the edge on the second level while Walter keeps the corner off of Foster. All of this blocking is necessary because Foster is not as fast as Tate, who runs a flat 4.4, but possesses better vision and cutting ability. With so many individual blocks on both sides of the play, there is a huge potential for certain holes to collapse and others to open, which Foster excels at hitting. He is valuable in this scheme not because he is athletically gifted, but because his improvisational ability is absolutely devastating. Not only that, but defense tend to run much more zone when Foster is in the game due to his naked boot receiving abilities. While he is deadly as a straight up runner, his skills are amplified against a defense dropping back and allowing him time to get to the 2nd level.

After we hit with a few of these runs from side line to side line with a little bootleg thrown in to move the chains, defenses get exhausted. Linebackers can’t get to the edge as fast and the trench warfare on the defensive side slows down almost to a crawl. That is when we bring Tate in to hit the holes with speed and power against the tired defense and he get huge chunks of yardage. While he doesn’t possess the vision or patience of Foster he does have incredible explosion and athleticism, which works wonders against a defense that has been playing for 6-8 straight minutes. After a few big gains off the fast physical style of Tate, we generally bring Foster back in to catch them trying to work against the play action, much to their dismay.

It is not at all uncommon for Houston to run 8-10 rushing plays in a row while subbing between Foster and Tate. We did it several times this season and nobody but Baltimore had an answer (which in part was due to Andre getting hurt the previous week which allowed them to play the run every. single. freakin. down.)

So, I guess moral of the story is that unless Foster has the right system, with the right line, and the right coach calling the plays, and the right second back to play off of, he won’t be as successful in any other team. They are both gifted, there is no doubt about that, but it isn’t all them.