Montee Ball's Updated 2014 Fantasy Outlook Heading into Week 4

The 2014 Denver Broncos' rushing attack has been a shell of its 2013 self, giving Montee Ball fantasy owners quite the headache as the regular season carries on.

In his first year as the Broncos' feature back, the second-year pro has amassed 165 yards through three games on 49 carries—good for a below-average 3.4 yards per carry. He has as many touchdowns (one) as fumbles lost so far in 2014.

Ball does have a long rush of 23 yards so far this season, and seven catches for 51 yards help to pad his stats a bit, but his yards-per-carry average is down by more than a yard from last year. Despite getting almost 20 carries per game, he's only averaging about 55 yards in those contests.

Those obviously aren't terrible stats for your average fantasy bench player. But for a player picked at an average of No. 15 overall in fantasy drafts, per FantasyPros.com, well, they aren't good.

Year	Car.	Rush Yards	Avg.	TD
2013	31	99	3.2	0
2014	49	165	3.4	1

The struggles aren't just attributed to Ball. Running lanes have been few and far between, with the former Wisconsin star admitting there's plenty of work to do heading into Denver's Week 4 bye.

“Right now, we need a lot of work in it," Ball told Broncos.com's Andrew Mason. "It starts up front, it starts with the tight ends, and especially with the running backs too. Collectively, we all need to sit down and really focus on it. And we will."

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Conventional wisdom would suggest the bye week—along with not having to play the Seahawks again this regular season—will be just what the run game needs. But the upcoming slate doesn't get much easier.

After the bye, Denver hosts the Cardinals in Week 5—a unit that hasn't let up more than 85 rushing yards in a game this year. Then, the Broncos will travel to face the Jets—a defense that blitzes relentlessly with a daunting front four in the hopes of masking its secondary woes. 

As if that isn't tough enough of a slate after facing the Seahawks in Week 3, they have the 49ers, Chargers and Patriots to follow that up. That's three of the league's top five defenses currently on the slate over the next month-plus.

Despite Peyton Manning's offense proving able to toss the ball around with great success again this year, the run game hasn't followed suit for whatever reason. Ball's first year as the guy in the backfield hasn't gotten off to a strong start, and the immediate future of Denver's schedule doesn't help.

What's more, Ball's opening-play fumble against the Seahawks resulted in more snaps for Ronnie Hillman. With the run game sputtering, don't be surprised to see head coach John Fox try to go with a more balanced attack.

Simply put, things could get worse for Ball's fantasy owners before they get better. 

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.