It seems weird to ask, given how good he's been for so many years, but does anyone even want Arian Foster at this stage in his career?
He'll turn 30 before the season and he's coming off an Achilles tear that ended his tenure with the Texans last year. Nobody wants 30-year-old running backs in the first place, even before tossing in a troubling injury history.
It's nearly June and Foster remains a free agent. Despite visiting with the Dolphins earlier this offseason, he left Miami without a contract. Now, Foster is saying that he needs another month to get back to being the Foster we all know.
"I probably need another month to get where I am, the person everyone is use to seeing," Foster told ABC 13's KTRK in Houston. "I can definitely play but I need another month to be where I want to be and be at that pro-bowl level I can be at."
Foster also addressed concerns over his personality."I am not one of those Captain America, 'yes sir, no sir,' kind of cats and a lot of that comes across as arrogance but if anyone has spent any real time with me, they'll say I'm not arrogant," Foster said.
When Foster gets healthy, he should find at least one team to hand him a prove-it type of contract. He's rushed for 6,472 yards and 54 touchdowns in seven seasons and has averaged 4.5 yards per carry in that span. In 2014, he appeared in 13 games and racked up more than 1,200 yards. So it wasn't that long ago that Foster served as one of the most productive running backs in the game.
One potential landing spot initially comes to mind: Miami, even if he left without a contract the first time around. As it stands, the team is poised to start Jay Ajayi. Just earlier this month, new head coach Adam Gase said that Ajayi "separated himself" from the team's other backs. That's fine, but consider Ajayi's competition is Isaiah Pead, Kenyan Drake, Daniel Thomas, and Damien Williams.
Collectively, the entire Dolphins' backfield has rushed for 1,926 career yards with Thomas accounting for 1,480 of those yards. That's not optimal.
Also consider Ajayi's career consists of 49 carries. Do the Dolphins really want to enter the season with their hopes pinned on someone with the experience level of a rookie? Adding a proven player like Foster to a limited backfield makes too much sense, as long as the price is right.
For Foster, who went undrafted, this uncertainty is nothing new.
"You know, I've been cut before but I ended up right back here," Foster said. "So, the uncertainty was 24 hours. You are not 100 percent sure where you are going to land, where you are going to live."
