In today's pass-heavy NFL, the value of the running back on the free agent market and in the draft is considerably low.

In fantasy football, though, the inverse seems to be true as running backs are highly valued heading into fantasy drafts because the good ones are guaranteed more touches a week than any non-quarterback. Those running backs fortunate to find themselves not in a running back-by-committee backfield tend to be held in super high regard during fantasy football drafts, especially those with a track record.

With that in mind, and considering after Week 8 of the fantasy football season that a running back who has 31 total touches finds himself in the top 20 in fantasy points in some leagues (in case you are wondering that player is Fantasy Pros.

Arian Foster's 2014: From Anti-Awesome to Awesome

For a player who once described an MRI showing his injured hamstring as "anti-awesome," and who in the same interview said he wants to do well in fantasy football and that he was on his mom's fantasy team in 2011, there's only one word to best depict his play in 2014: awesome.

How awesome, you ask? Well, our whopping 6 games with 100 yards or more, second behind only the record-setting pace of numberFire Week 9 Projections see Foster continuing this despite Philadelphia's strong run defense. We are projecting Foster to be the 5th-ranked running back in Week 9, with 17 carries for 77 yards rushing and 0.5 touchdowns as well as 4 catches for 32 yards.

For the remainder of 2014, we are bullish on Foster. Our remaining year projections have Foster as the 4th-ranked running back, expecting him to finish strong with 148 carries for 700 yards and 5.3 rushing touchdowns. On the reception side, we like Foster for another 29.2 receptions for 239 yards and a receiving touchdown.

So combining his first half of 2014 with our projections for the second half, Foster has been more than good this season. He's been elite once again and a huge value to fantasy owners considering his average draft position. I'm sure like his fantasy owners, he thinks that's pretty awesome.