One of the first things you look at when you think about Ben Tate, is durability. The NFL is currently a cruel game to running backs and with the current trend of pushing more to a RBBC acrossed the league makes finding a RB that can handle 300 plus carries very rare. Tate has missed a combined 8 games over the past 3 years to go along with missing his entire rookie season in 2010. After 4 years playing Arian Foster's backup in Houston, Tate hit the open market and signed with the Cleveland Browns on a 2 year deal for $6.2 million. The deal looks to be weighed very heavily for Tate to stay healthy if he wants to see the full $6.2 million. He received $1.5 million as a signing bonus, and will receive another $1 million as his base salary in 2014. As far as the rest of his salary goes it is entirely based on him staying healthy, and if he is active for all 16 games will get an additional bonus of $750,000, and nearly $50,000 for each game he's active. With all the extra incentives, Tate is going to be motivated to stay on the field and to perform at a lead RB level.
At the time of the Ben Tate signing, all arrows were pointing up for the Cleveland Browns as they had two 1st round draft picks in the draft and they were coming off a season which saw their passing game really make an impact with Josh Gordon leading all recievers in yards with 1,646 despite missing 2 games. Fast forward a few months later and the situation has turned upside down now that Gordon is potentially scheduled to miss the entire 2014 season. What that means for Tate, is that all the open room that he might have experienced with Gordon lined up on the outside is gone. The Browns have very little outside of Gordon in the passing game and that might allow teams to really focus in on stopping the run.
One more negative going against Tate in 2014 is that he will be looking over his shoulder now that the Browns drafted Terrance West in the third round and also Isaiah Crowell being added as an undrafted rookie. Hopefully it only motivates Tate to continue to strive to be the guy in Cleveland and that now that he is out from the shadows of Arian Foster he can prove he really does have what it takes to be the number one running back for an NFL team. Tate has already went on record saying he isn't scared off by the competition for the starting job from anyone on the Browns current roster stating "Truthfully, I don't look at it like that," Tate sida. "You guys may see it like that, but there's nobody in that room that scares me. I'm just honest."
In Tate's 4 year career so far he has only had 4 games where he saw 20+ carries a game and in those 4 particular games he rushed 91 times for 402 yards and 4 touchdowns. That comes out to be 4.42 yards per carry and the numbers as a whole would be enough to put Tate into a top 10 ranking of any of the current RB's in the league. In the 40 NFL games that Tate has been active for he has only rushed for 100+ yards 5 times. These numbers must be taken with a grain of salt as over those 4 years he was behind one of the leagues most electric runners in Arian Foster. That in itself has motivated and prepared Tate to handle the pressure of handling playing time now with Cleveland. Tate went on to say "If I come in here and say 'Oh I've got this locked down' and don't compete, that's how you lose your job, "That's how you find your way out of the league fast. I'm a natural competitor. That's just in me. I went out there in Houston every day and tried to compete with Arian knowing I wasn't going to be the starter no matter what I did because he had already done things. So I'm going to natually compete and I hope all the other running backs want to compete as well. As a group that's how we're going to get better as a unit."
Positives
- Change of scenery, no longer will be in Arian Foster's shadow.
- Rookie QB in Johnny Manziel and surely the Browns will be more conservative to start the season with a rookie QB and will look more to establish a running attack to take the pressure off of the QB.
- Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan has a history of success with running the football, and often likes to stick with one guy.
- With Josh Gordon's likely long suspension, the Browns are forced to shy away from their more balanced attack on offense and focus more on a run-heavy attack which will benefit Ben Tate early and often.
- Despite all the injuries through out his brief 4 year career so far, he might have extra mileage on the tires since he hasn't played in as many games as a similar back at his same stage in his career.
- Strong offensive line
- Tate has NFL game experience and has learned from one of the best RB's in the league in Arian Foster.
Negatives
- Competition. When Tate first signed on with the Browns there was little competition in his way for the starting RB postion. Since he has signed the Browns have drafted a talented RB in Terrance West which they took in the 3rd round and later added a pre-draft favorite in Isaiah Crowell as an undrafted free agent. You could also add a healthy Dion Lewis in the mix who was on pace to be a major factor in the offense before he suffered a season ending injury in the pre-season.
- With Josh Gordon's upcoming suspension and a rookie QB likely under center, opposing defenses are going to have the ability to put their focus primarily on stopping the run, and that could lead to Tate having a hard time finding the open holes and lanes.
- Tate has a past that is filled with injuries starting from his rookie season where he didn't even play a single game. The next 3 years after his rookie season he has missed another 8 games.
Final Thoughts
Ben Tate is a perfect example of a boom or bust RB pick. He plays for an offense that will be starting a young QB, possibly lost their best WR for the year, has a RB competition, and has a history of injury troubles. With all those things working against Tate his ADP might continue to slip down a couple of extra rounds and that is when he can be viewed more as a value play. His ADP is currently in the 6th round and any time in rounds 7-9 if he falls to you could be of great value. Finding a starting RB in fantasy football is becoming harder and harder to do after you get past the elite top 10 type of runners. To find an edge you are going to have to anticipate at a higher level at how a player can produce and what type of production he will see. If everything falls in line for Tate he could be a high upside RB2 for fantasy purposes and is a real possibility to top 1,000 yards on the ground. First thing is first and he must beat out Terrance West and secure the starting RB job.
Projections
Projections | Rush | RuYds | RuTD | Rec | RecYds | RecTD |
James Brimacombe | 220 | 950 | 7 | 35 | 200 | 1 |
David Dodds | 170 | 697 | 6 | 26 | 190 | 1 |
Other Viewpoints
Pat McManamon of ESPN breaks down Ben Tate's contract
"Ben Tate's contract with the Cleveland Browns is a “show me” deal that rewards him for staying healthy, but puts off his big payday until 2016."
Will Burge of Bleacher Report thinks Tate was an overrated signing by the Browns
"The reason Tate is an overrated signing, however, is because of the position he plays. Running back has become increasingly irrelevant. Teams often find production from late-round draft picks or even unsigned guys these days."