Can Ben Tate Continue to Be a Stud Fantasy Running Back for the Houston Texans?

Arian Foster exploded onto the fantasy football spectrum last year with 231 yards in Week 1 and went on to dominate the NFL as well as many fantasy football leagues.  However with Foster out this year, Ben Tate has stepped in and is currently third in the NFL in rushing yards. 

Can you count on Tate to step up and be a work horse for your fantasy team?

Ben Tate's fantasy value is directly tied to Foster's health.  Unlike last year when Foster had no one in particular to fight off, Tate will lose touches if and when Foster comes back 100 percent healthy.  Foster had 10 carries for 33 yards and two receptions for seven yards before he pulled himself out of the game with a tweaked hamstring.  This tweak could mean different things because hamstrings are tough to evaluate.  Gary Kubiak claimed that it was a fatigue issue, but John McClain of the Chronicle reported that Foster felt his hamstring getting tight and pulled himself out.

If Foster continues to struggle with his hamstring, then the door opens up for Tate to seize the opportunity to become an elite back in Kubiak's zone-blocking offense.  In essentially the same offense, the Broncos produced 10 different leading rushers between 1998-2009.  In that time there were two elite backs (Terrell Davis and Clinton Portis) and eight 1,000-plus yard seasons for the Broncos' leading rusher.  This is a proven system that can produce very good running backs, and there is no reason to believe that if Tate gets the touches that he won't be able to put up big rushing numbers.

However, Tate will have to expand his game to go from being a very good rusher to an elite fantasy player.  Thus far, Tate has only one TD and a fumble.  He will have to fix that ratio not just to help his fantasy production but also to make sure that Foster, Derrick Ward and Steve Slaton don't get an opportunity to steal his carries. 

Tate also will need to be more of a factor in the passing game.  The Texans have an elite passing attack and for Tate to take full advantage of his snaps, he needs to be a receiving threat.  Foster had 604 receiving yards and two touchdowns last year that helped get over 2,000 yards from scrimmage last year. 

Tate definitely has the ability to be an elite back in this offense.  However, with the number of quality backs on the Texans roster, he may have trouble getting the number of touches it takes to put up consistent fantasy points.  If Foster is out for Week 3, Tate will be a good start but if Foster is back, Tate would probably be relegated back to the bench or maybe to a flex position behind your two starting running backs. 

Obviously, all of this depends on your team so if you have any specific questions feel free to ask them in the comments section below.