The Houston Texans impressive two-man running back rotation is now down to one. After Arian Foster went down with a back injury that required surgery, Ben Tate became the leading rusher. The two competed during the preseason, but Foster simply won the job maybe on contract size alone. Tate has done well with what he has had to work with, but that might not be enough to secure a future with the Texans.
Houston has exactly three games left to play this season before the begin putting in serious work this offseason. They must evaluate everything from their head coach to their quarterback situation. Tate is trying not to think past the next three weeks, but his expiring contract makes that hard to do.
"That's something I can't really answer right now," Tate said, via the Houston Chronicle. "Just the fact so many things are going to change once the season's over - different head coaches, different people fired everywhere else. That's something I haven't really thought about yet. That's something I'll probably think about after the next three weeks."
With the extreme amount of changes coming the Texans' way, Tate understands the future is almost impossible to predict. After firing Gary Kubiak, the team must begin a coaching search. Brian Cushing and Arian Foster have big contracts and durability issues. Andre Johnson is finishing his 11th season and not getting any younger. Owner Bob McNair does not want to use the word rebuilding, but he knows that is what the team is doing.
"This is not a long-term rebuilding process -- I want to make that clear," McNair said. "We've got core players who are outstanding players and we still need to fill a few holes. We had some injuries that hurt us at key positions in terms of leadership on the field. We have some things that we need to do, but we still got a good core group of players that can make for an outstanding team."
Tate has done well this year. He has 699 yards and four touchdowns as a rotational player, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. He could have a very strong future ahead of him and be a player the Texans could really build around, but that appears unlikely to happen. Foster will once again be the go-to guy when he gets healthy as Houston does not appear keen on giving Tate the larger contract he could earn elsewhere.