I'm not too knowledgeable in football, but if Arian Foster was in a man-blocking scheme on a team with mediocre rush blocking, how do you think he will perform? Basically my question is, is his success a product of our system? Would he be able to reproduce those numbers with another team?
you can what if about every running back except pretty much Barry Sanders when asking about if they had a crappier o-line...
Is he a product of our system? Wouldn't that mean you could plug almost any RB in our system and they perform just as well? Then the answer is no.
Lol funny you brought that up. I realize zone blocking schemes usually require a certain type of runningback, but from what I read, many zone-scheme rbs are fairly replaceable and usually don't require "elite" type players. I mean slaton and ward both had very good games sunday. This isn't a knock on Arian by any means. In fact, I find myself wanting to see him run the ball almost every play. I just wanted to know how well he would do in a man scheme instead.
Foster brings a lot to the table that would work in any running system: vision, good change of direction, and yards after contact. That gorgeous fake step juke he had yesterday would create yards squared up against any defender. He's also showing patience, which even works if you're Steve Slaton.
But you can see the difference between Slaton and Foster. Foster's decision making when it comes to bursting through the holes is fantastic. He's also able to break more tackles / make people miss when he gets into the open field -- that works in a zone blocking scheme and man blocking scheme.
Silly question considering the Texans have trotted out about 6-7 running backs the last two years, using the exact same system, with the exact same O-Line, and yet only Foster has been able to produce consistently and effectively.
This...and he doesnt quit..he got a good yard or two last game while carrying a whole pile on his back. And he still makes plays after his initial move, so his own talent shows, not just the texans' system.
Steve Slaton's rookie year? Outside of him our RBs have been complete garbage and would suck no matter where they are.
Large, fast, holds onto the ball. Can take contact, can avoid contact. Is patient at the line of scrimmage. He is an awesome football player through 4 games.
A lot of backs succeeded in this system, but there were certainly ones that were special (Terrell Davis and Clinton Portis). Of course there were also Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Tatum Bell, Reuben Droughns, Selvin Young, Travis Henry, Ron Dayne, Steve Slaton, etc. It is too early to tell which group Foster is a part of
Sometimes you know when a RB is legit. Foster is legit. His cuts, speed, vision, and he's hard to bring down (especially one-on-one) because he's a big RB. Not many RBs can get 231 yards rushing (and 7 yards per attempt at that).
Reminds me of a taller version of Portis when he was in Denver. Rick Smith gets an A+ for doing his homework on this guy.
I prefer Arian the Barbarian or Barbarian Foster, better then Arian Nation. On subject, clearly the dude has some skills. He has good lateral movement, he has good vision, he pretty fast, he has good balance (shown when Huff tried to tackle him from behind). He's simply a good running back. That's not to say he hasn't benefited from the offensive scheme, but he deserves equal if not more credit than the line. He has been able to succeed consistently when other backs have not.
