2016 NFL Rumors: New England Patriots, Denver Broncos target Signing Arian Foster

May 23, 2016 11:51 AM EDT

Running back Arian Foster is causing quite a stir in the NFL after becoming a free agent earlier this year. According to reports, various teams including the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos are very interested in signing him.

As noted by Sportige, the Patriots allowed the 2016 NFL Draft to pass by without getting a running back. Although this is probably because the RB bench of the team is pretty deep especially with Dion Lewis, James White, Donald Brown, Tyler Gaffney and Joey Iosefa, rumors suggest that the Patriots could be focused on getting Foster. This would make sense especially since he's one of the high-profile veteran RB currently available in the market.

But, if the New England franchise is looking to make a move on Foster, it should act now since according to Mile High Report, the Broncos had reportedly reached out to Foster recently. But then again, as the site noted, this might only be a rumor since the Broncos already has a starter in the form of C.J. Anderson. And, competing for his backup are Devontae Booker and Ronnie Hillman.

The hype currently surrounding Foster may seem a bit much. After all, during his last year with the Houston Texans, a team he has been with since 2009, he only played a total of four games after rupturing his Achilles tendon in October last year. This immediately ended his season after he was put on injured reserve by the team.

But, then again, maybe New England is looking at Foster's career as a whole. During his time as an NFL player, he had a total of 6,472 rushing yards and received 14 touchdowns. Regarding yards ran, probably the biggest highlight of his career was in 2010 when he had 1,616. 2014 was also impressive when he ran 1,246 yards.

Although Foster is no longer a young player in today's NFL standards, he is highly respected as a veteran athlete who can do wonders for a team and is considered as one of the best-running backs in the league.