Heading into the upcoming NFL regular season, the Houston Texans will be a team to watch in the AFC Conference as they seem to be on the rise in the NFL with one of the most dynamic offenses in the league. As if having one of the best passing games in the league weren’t good enough with Pro Bowlers Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson leading the way, the Texans have gotten even better offensively with arguably one of the best running backs in the game coming out of the backfield in Arian Foster.

Last season Arian Foster took the NFL by storm as he burst onto the scene in Week 1 by destroying the division rival Indianapolis Colts with incredible runs which led to 231 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. This performance against the Colts turned a lot of heads around the NFL and for good reason as Foster ended up leading the league in rushing with 1,616 yards.

The NFL regular season is just one week away and contract extensions seem be getting done every single day with star players cashing in and securing their future with their current teams. The two most recent Pro Bowlers to sign contract extensions were San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore and superstar quarterback Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Both of these players needed to sign these contract extensions before the NFL regular season got underway and they were able to just that with Gore signing for $21 million (three years) with the 49ers and Vick agreeing to a deal worth $100 million with the Eagles. These new deals will almost certainly be the starting point for negotiations with players that still need to sign an extension like New Orleans Saints superstar quarterback Drew Brees.

Throughout the entire NFL offseason and during the NFL lockout, the Indianapolis Colts have been very concerned about the health and status of four-time NFL MVP quarterback Peyton Manning. With Manning recovering from offseason neck surgery, the Colts knew that there was potential for the superstar quarterback to miss some time once the NFL lockout was over and training camp got underway, but they didn’t expect his rehab to take as long as it has.

Over the last month or so, the Indianapolis Colts have come to the conclusion that they could be without Peyton Manning under center to start the upcoming NFL regular season. With that being said, the team made some moves to insured that they would have a veteran quarterback to start Week 1 against the division rival Houston Texans. As a result, the Colts were able to convince Kerry Collins to come out of retirement and join the team.

The Philadelphia Eagles came into the NFL offseason with the goals of improving the team through trades and free agency while negotiating a contract extension with superstar quarterback Michael Vick. It was uncertain if the Eagles could pull off some considerable moves to improve the team on both sides of the football and re-sign Vick for the long term, but they were able to do just that with the signing of the last season’s MVP candidate being the icing on the cake.

Not only were the Philadelphia Eagles able to bring in corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie via trade with the Arizona Cardinals for backup quarterback Kevin Kolb, but they were also able to sign free agents Nnamdi Asomugha, Vince Young, Ronnie Brown and Steve Smith. These moves started a lot of buzz around the NFL as the Philadelphia Eagles went from being a perennial playoff team to a legitimate Super Bowl title contender.