The Houston Texans have had a very tough season and with Arian Foster done for the year, Ben Tate has stepped up at running back despite some broken ribs, but that injury finally caught up to him and now he is on IR heading into Week 16, making Dennis Johnson the best fantasy football free agent pickup for the playoffs for owners still alive in their leagues.
Tate has been very solid for fantasy owners this season and he has been an MVP for anyone that needed a replacement for Arian Foster, but now according to ESPN.com, Tate is done for the season after aggravating his broken ribs. The team has not won a game since Week 2 of the season and now Case Keenum will be out for Sunday's game with the Denver Broncos as well and that leaves Matt Schaub and Dennis Johnson to start at the two primary positions. Tate has been playing through pain for weeks and now he finally will be out and that leaves Johnson with the chance to have a solid game against a terrible defense in the Broncos.
Tate has been hampered since October, but he has toughed it out coming in for Foster and this season he has over 770 yards and is averaging over four yards per carry and that likely means a nice free agent contract somewhere next season. Deji Karim will be the backup for Johnson and he has had some solid plays this year as well and in deep leagues he could be a potential replacement for Tate and Foster if Johnson is already picked up. Tate was injured against the Kansas City Chiefs and he played through pain while dealing with multiple injured ribs.
Tate has four touchdowns this season and this year mirrors what happened when Foster was injured a few years ago and Tate rushed for nearly 1,000 yards. This season he has 34 receptions to go along with his 180 carries and he was coming off four solid games in five weeks, rushing for at least 50 yards in every contest, all losses for the Texans. Tate rushed for 72 yards against the Colts last week and has averaged over four yards per carry in three of the last five games.
Tate had three catches for 20 yards last week and had three touchdowns and 102 yards against the Patriots and that came two weeks after another solid game against the Raiders with 88 yards on 19 carries. Johnson comes in with 154 yards on the season and a solid 4.2 yards per carry and now he will get the start on Sunday. This season Johnsons had over 150 yards and his best game over the past four weeks was against the Jaguars and he had 74 yards on 13 carries in that game.