Matt Schaub excited about Ben Tate's ability

Since the Houston Texans drafted Auburn running back Ben Tate in the second round this spring, he dealt with a hamstring problem.

Once he recovered from the injury, he displayed the ability that the Texans had identified in him.

"Ben came into OTAs with a little bit of a hamstring so that put him out for a couple of weeks," Texans quarterback Matt Schaub told 610 Radio. "But he came back that last week and you could tell he was really still into the meetings, getting mental reps on the practice field when he was still injured."

The 5-foot-11, 220-pounder gained 3,321 career yards and scored 24 touchdowns in 19 career starts, catching 53 passes for 336 yards.

As a senior, Tate rushed for 1,362 yards and scored 10 touchdowns while being named All-Southeastern Conference second-team.

"He came in and understood his roles and responsibilities so that's very encouraging because they all can run," Schaub said. "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 guys 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. ..

"From what I've seen on the practice field, he's got some speed to him and probably the thing that went unnoticed more than anything is how fast he is, but he also brings that power style to our backfield to go between the tackles and put his head down."

Tate is scheduled to compete with Arian Foster and Steve Slaton for playing time.

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