Steelers who marched us to madness: Ben Tate

by Joe Kuzma (joe_kuzma) on March 23, 2017

March Madness is everywhere you look, so we here at Steel City Underground felt like getting in on the craze with a Steelers-inspired tournament all our own: Steelers Who Marched Us to Madness.

The concept is simple. Over a period of the last five seasons, there have been a number of additions the Steelers have made who came in with high expectations. Several of those additions ended as subtractions for one reason or another, leaving Pittsburgh after a disappointing run with the franchise.

We have compiled eight of those names into a March Madness-style tournament, with you, the fans, voting on who was the most disappointing acquisition who “marched us to madness”.

Steelers who marched us to madness round one

Note: realizing this could be a bit insensitive to the actual player discussed, we would like to remind everyone that the tournament only involves past players and you should only consider their time with the Steelers when voting or leaving comments. This is merely an entertainment exercise to gauge fan expectation versus how a player’s tenure in Pittsburgh turned out, which may have disappointed for any variety of reasons.

A new player profile will be released each day of the tournament. Let’s look at today’s participant.

Ben Tate

Tate literally played one game as a Steeler… and he was not put in a position to succeed from the start.

The Steelers were left with only practice squad running back Josh Harris and underwhelming (and undersized) scatback Dri Archer on their depth chart following a season-ending injury to Le’Veon Bell entering a Wild Card weekend encounter against their division rival the Baltimore Ravens back in the 2014-15 season. The team was desperate to pick up someone who could help shoulder the burden in the backfield, and that someone ended up being Ben Tate.

Tate was a big fish in the free-agent pond earlier that same season, leaving his original team, the Houston Texans, for a rich contract and a starting opportunity with the Cleveland Browns. When that opportunity soured, Tate was waived by Cleveland, claimed by Minnesota, then later released and signed by the Steelers, all within a six-week period at the end of 2014.

With Bell on the shelf, fans were worried the team was in trouble, but the Tate signing appeared to offer some relief, compared with the alternatives of Harris and Archer.

However, with barely a week’s worth of practice to acclimate himself with Pittsburgh’s system, Tate ended up being responsible for two of the Steelers’ turnovers in the game. He would finish with only five carries for 19 yards, and never play in the NFL again.