By virtue of the eyeball test as well as the box score, Ben Tate outplayed Arian Foster in the Houston Texans' Week 1 comeback victory over the San Diego Chargers. That performance has earned Tate at least a temporary timeshare, but the former second-round draft pick made it clear that he's not satisfied playing second-fiddle to Foster. "I would be lying to you if I told you that I embraced the complement role to someone else," Tate told Ross Jones of FOXSports.com. "That's not why I wanted to be in the NFL. That's not my dream to complement someone else. That's not what my attitude or why I work out is to complement someone else." Tate added that he's merely being honest about his "competitive" nature, pointing out that he and Foster are "both mature about the situation." As we pointed out on Wednesday's edition of the "Around The League Podcast", Foster will regain the lead-back role once he knocks the rust off. If Tate continues to outplay Foster, however, the tandem attack is here to stay. Source: NFL.com
Shades of Holmes/Johnson here...Tate would be a star if Foster wasn't in the way, and if he keeps showing that whenever Fosters inevitably dinged up, at some point it's going to be hard not to keep feeding him even when Fosters healthy.
