Ben Tate Injury: Updates on Texans RB's Week 5 Status and Fantasy Value

Texans' running back Ben Tate left with a groin injury in the first half of Houston's 17-10 home victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Arian Foster stepped in beautifully for his own backup, racking up 155 yards on 30 carries to finish out the afternoon. Tate's troubles come a particularly precarious point for the Texans, who are already without Derrick Ward (sprained ankle) and must tend carefully to Foster's hamstring.

UPDATE: Sunday, Oct. 9 at 2:10 p.m. EDT by Donald Wood

Ben Tate hasn’t touched the ball once in the first half of the Houston Texans game against the Oakland Raiders.

As expected, the Texans have gone hard with starter Arian Forster and are playing it safe with Tate and his groin injury.

UPDATE: Sunday, Oct. 9 at 12:20 p.m. EDT by Donald Wood

With the return of Arian Foster to 100 percent health, the amount of touches for Ben Tate this week was going to be low, but an injury to his groin will reduce his carries even more.

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter is reporting on twitter about Ben Tate’s status for Sunday’s game:

If you have Ben Tate as anything more than a handcuff for Arian Foster it’s time to drop him or try to trade him to the owner of Arian Foster for anything you can get.

UPDATE: Saturday, Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m. EDT by Donald Wood

With Arian Foster coming back healthy, there will be far less work for Ben Tate if he is available after hurting his groin. The Texans love running the ball and Arian Foster is the No. 1 guy again, and that leaves Tate with little to no work.

Houston Texans insider Nick Scurfield is reporting on twitter about Tate’s participation in Friday’s practice:

If you have Ben Tate as anything other than a handcuff for Arian Foster, it’s time to cut ties and take a risk with another player from the waiver wire with a higher upside.

Update: Thursday, Oct. 5 at 3:58 p.m. EDT

Ben Tate was still held out of practice today according to Nick Scurfield of the Houston Texans' official website, but he is making progress.

It sounds like Tate might end up being a game-time decision at best for this one, so be sure to monitor the situation through the weekend.

Update: Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 3:01 p.m. EDT

While the Houston Texans are playing their cards close to the chest on just how serious Tate's groin injury is, but some promising news did come out of Texans' camp today.

With Arian Foster returning to form, Tate will certainly be getting less carries, but still has plenty of fantasy value as a backup RB.

Update: Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 8:25 a.m. EDT by -Alex Kay

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that it is definitely a groin sprain that is keeping Tate on the day-to-day injury report. It is very important to monitor his status for Fantasy purposes because Derrick Ward should still be out and Foster is the only healthy back on the roster.

"We thought we were close going into last week," Kubiak said. "We pushed his [Ward's] workload up a little. He got very, very sore off the first workout last week, so we backed off. We started that process over (Monday)."

UPDATE: Monday, Oct. 3 at 5:45 p.m. EDT

Texans coach Gary Kubiak announced at a press conference on Monday afternoon that Tate should be healthy enough and available to play when the Raiders come to town on Sunday:

In the meantime, Foster will continue to carry the load until he can't go, with Chris Ogbonnaya ready to contribute if needed. If you're thinking about dropping Tate from your fantasy football team, don't do it because he's banged up. Rather, do it because Foster's back and will eat up all the 100-yard rushing games Tate used to account for.

UPDATE: Monday, Oct. 3 at 3:30 p.m. EDT

 Tate told the Houston Chronicle that he felt "a small pop" on his first run of the day, which went for 20 yards:

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"I tried to fight through it and see if I could go, but I just couldn't. We don't really know too much about the injury yet. I'm going to get looked at in the morning. It was a small pop. I don't think it's that bad at all. We'll go to the doctors and see what's going on."

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Texans' head coach Gary Kubiak is expected to announce the results of those tests at a press conference on Monday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. local time. If Tate has to sit out, look for Chris Ogbonnaya to absorb some of his carries, with Arian Foster carrying the load.

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