Ben Tate

                         RUSHING                            RECEIVING                            FANTASY

Tater-Tot will be seeing some quality field action right away with the Texans.  Quarterback Matt Schaub had glowing reviews about Tate after OTAs, saying he was impressed by his speed and his attention to the playbook and everything happening around him.  Most importantly, Tate provides the power-back that the Texans desperately need.  Last year in a game against Arizona, with a minute to left and down by a touchdown, the Texans had the ball at the Cardinals 1-yard line, but couldn’t punch it in because they didn’t have a power-back.  Tate will be that guy this year for them.  He’ll mostly be utilized in the red zone, as he’ll likely be behind Steve Slaton and Arian Foster on the depth chart to start the season, but he will still have an impact.

~ The Texans ranked 30^th in rushing last year, so they can only go up

~ Schaub is becoming one of the elite quarterbacks in the league, thereby opening up space for his backs... including Tate

~ Slaton is coming back from injury and Foster doesn't really excel at any one thing, so Tate could find more time than expected

If you’ve never heard of Ben Tate, don’t feel embarrassed.  Not many people have.  He probably had the quietest 3,000 yard career at Auburn ever.  He barely played his freshman year, rushed for 900 yards his sophomore year, only 650 junior year, but then he had a breakout 1,362 yards his senior season.  Amazingly he is fifth on Auburn’s prestigious career rushing list behind names such as Bo Jackson and Cadillac Williams and ahead of Ronnie Brown.

Yet, we’re here to talk about touchdowns, because that’s what can get you the most fantasy points, and that’s exactly what Ben Tate will be doing.  Tate scored 24 TDs overall in college - 10 of those came his senior season.  This 5’11”, 220-pound back is tough to bring down.  Just ask All-American safety Eric Berry:

He's basically a bulldog disguised as a tiger because he has speed as well.  Although he lacks creativity in the open field, his 4.43 time in the 40 at the NFL Combine ranked third best among running backs, behind Jahvid Best and C.J. Spiller.  He’s got some mad game.

Ben Tate (@BenTateRB) can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BenTateRB

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 "He came in and understood his roles and responsibilities so that's very encouraging because they all can run. But at this level it's about catching the ball out of the backfield, it's pass protection, it's understanding the bigger picture and all (our running backs) do that, but I think Ben fits our mold and it's going to be exciting once they put the pads on in training camp to see what they can do."

-Matt Schaub at OTAs on Houston's running backs, particularly Ben Tate

Ben Tate is stronger than Tim Tebow

Ben signed a four-year contract with the Texans just before training camp began.  The terms of the deal are still unknown:

2010 - Under Contract

2011 - Under Contract

2012 - Under Contract

2013 - Under Contract

2014 - Free Agent

One of the tougher situations to put a finger on, so if you have Tate on your team, you'll want to have both Steve Slaton and Arian Foster as well

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• 2010 NFL Draft

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