Arian Foster Injury: Is Ben Tate Now Houston Texans' Most Valuable Fantasy RB?

With Pro Bowl running back Arian Foster out another week with a hamstring injury, second man Ben Tate will once again carry a big load for the Houston Texans on Sunday. And right now Tate is looking like the best fantasy option Houston has for the near future.

Foster tried to play on his injured hammy a week ago, and the results were pretty awful. He finished the day with 10 carries for 33 yards and two catches for seven yards before departing. Meanwhile, Tate had his second strong outing, as he carried the ball 23 times for 103 yards, while adding four catches for 32 yards.

Foster is inactive for Week 3 and that could be bad news for the near future. Hamstring injuries usually take a while to heal and his ill-advised attempt at a comeback in Week 2 may have done more harm than good. With Tate playing well, and showing that he can handle the load of a full-time feature back, it wouldn't be surprising if Foster sat out a few more games.

There is no point in the Texans trying to rush Foster back, especially with Tate playing as well as he has been. They're better off sitting Foster until he is 100 percent and letting the second-year man from Auburn handle the position.

For now, Tate is not only the Texans' most valuable back, he's one of the top options in the entire NFL. Houston has a high-powered offense (364.5 yards, 28.5 points per game) and though Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson are one of the better quarterback-receiver tandems in the NFL, the running game helps to set them up.

That makes Tate as valuable a running back as there is in the NFL right now.