Houston Texans 2014 Preview: Offense

Oct 13, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (23) runs with the ball during the third quarter against the St. Louis Rams at Reliant Stadium. The Rams defeated the Texans 38-13. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Running Back
The running back roster of the Texans looks like this: Arian Foster, Alfred Blue, Jonathan Grimes and Ronnie Brown. At fullback is Jay Prosch.

This isn’t the most star-studded group of runners, but there is some talent in those names.

The No. 1 question for the Texans’ offense may be: How will the health of Foster affect the Texans in ’14? Last year he missed the second half of the season with his back issue that eventually caused him to have surgery.

In his eight starts, Foster rushed for 542 yards on 121 attempts, snapping a streak of three consecutive seasons of 1,200-plus yards of rushing each season from 2010-12 where he had individual rushing seasons of 1,616, 1,224 and 1,424 yards.

Looking at ’13, Foster averaged 4.5 yards per carry, which was better than what he did in ’12 when it was 4.1. The problem with Foster last season was staying healthy, as he has just 121 attempts and one touchdown.

For Foster in ’14, he must be on the field and produce, or the Texans’ offense doesn’t have a prayer to be successful. He has yet to work with the ’14 version of the Texans offense in a game-type situation as he missed the entire preseason for the second year in a row.

Foster must be healthy this upcoming season, because the others on the rushing roster are either unproven or have had their best seasons in the past.

Blue could be a surprise, as the rookie out of LSU will be learning on the go for the Texans, and Grimes really hasn’t much experience in the NFL, either. As for Brown, he’s played the past two seasons for the San Diego Chargers. With the Chargers, he made one start and totaled 377 yards in 30 total games in San Diego.

Brown had his best success in six seasons with the Miami Dolphins when he rushed for a total of 5,328 yards and 38 touchdowns in 76 games (71 starts) from 2005-10.