Is Ronnie Hillman Replacing Montee Ball As Starter?

Will the Denver Broncos replace Montee Ball with Ronnie Hillman as the starting running back?

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The Denver Broncos were hoping that second-year running back Montee Ball would be able to step into the starting role and play consistent football, but that wasn’t the case prior to his injury. He simply wasn’t able to get anything going, which many blamed on the offensive line and other issues. Now after seeing Ronnie Hillman play a big game against a fairly good New York Jets’ defense, that is beginning to come in question.

FanSided’s own Gabe Harris took a look at whether or not Hillman could take over as the starter over Ball once he returns from injury.

From PredominantlyOrange.com:

"Ball doesn’t seem like an ideal fit for a Peyton Manning offense where the QB is rarely under the center and the RB is standing next to the QB and is handed the ball with very little to no forward movement. Ball needs a head of steam to be as effective as he can be. He seems better suited for an offense where the QB is under the center and perhaps even a FB lead blocking, where he is handed the ball as he is moving towards the line of scrimmage already.Hillman and Juwan Thompson are better suited to take the ball from Manning while nearly standing still and yet still get to top speed relatively quickly and get through holes faster, which is incredibly important in this type of offense."

Needless to say, moving back to a backup running back role would not make Ball a very happy person. He carried the football 55 times for 172 yards and one touchdown in his tenure as the starter before his injury. Those numbers aren’t all that good and he didn’t look like he fit very well into the offensive system that the Broncos run.

Hillman, on the other hand, just got the first major workload of the season, carrying the football 24 times for 100 yards. Assuming he is able to keep his fumbling issues away, he may very well have the inside track to start for Denver. That being said, the Broncos are going to have a hard time putting Ball back on the bench even with the struggles that he had early on in the season.

When everything is said and done, the Broncos are going to have an incredibly difficult decision to make. Ball still has plenty of talent to turn things around if they give him another chance, but Hillman also has the potential to be a good starter moving forward. Either way, the Broncos could be making a mistake.

Will the Denver Broncos replace Montee Ball with Ronnie Hillman as the starting running back?

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