According to a report from Jayson Braddock of ESPN Radio in Houston, the groin injury suffered by running back Arian Foster at Texans training camp on Monday is "serious in nature."
Arian Foster's groin injury is serious in nature. Source said it should require surgery & may be candidate for IR w/ designation for return.
— Jayson Braddock (@JaysonBraddock) August 4, 2015
The surgery concern was echoed by Tania Ganguli, who originally reported the Foster injury.
This is a significant injury for Arian Foster. Can confirm, as @jaysonbraddock said, there's concern it will require groin surgery. #Texans
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) August 4, 2015
There's no confirmation of this IR portion of Braddock's report just yet, but if true, it's obviously a huge blow. Going on IR with a designation to return would keep Foster off the practice field until after at least Week 6, and he wouldn't be allowed to play in a game until after Week 8. With the Texans having their bye in Week 9, it would effectively keep Foster off the field until their Week 10 game against the Bengals.
The other running backs on Houston's roster are Alfred Blue, Jonathan Grimes, seventh-round pick Kenny Hilliard and former Eagle Chris Polk. Combined, that group has 288 career NFL carries, racking up 1,030 yards and 10 scores. That basically amounts to a down season for Foster, who has a 16-game average of 305 carries for 1,383 yards and 12 touchdowns. He's missed 11 combined games over the last two seasons with various injuries, though, and this would mark another injury-related setback.
In the first eight weeks of the year, Houston plays the Chiefs, Panthers, Buccaneers, Falcons, Colts, Jaguars, Dolphins and Titans. Respectively, that group finished the 2014 season 26th, 23th, 8th, 30th, 19th, 20th, 18th and 29th in run defense DVOA, according to Football Outsiders. That's an average ranking of 21.6, the bottom third in the league. The Falcons, Colts, Jags and Dolphins made additions to their defensive fronts this offseason, but the best run defense in that group – Carolina – is currently without both starting defensive tackles due to injuries suffered in camp.
Regardless of how tough a slate the fill-ins would face, being without Foster for any length of time would change the entire complexion of the Texans' season. Houston has a totally unsettled quarterback situation with Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett engaged in a camp battle, and the Texans undoubtedly were counting on Foster to carry much of the offensive burden this season. The combination of Blue, Grimes, Hilliard and Polk may be able to provide a reasonable facsimile of his production, but none inspires nearly the same type of fear in defenses as Foster.
