Ronnie Hillman Putting Montee Ball Out of a Job with Improved Play as Starter

The Denver Broncos have perfectly achieved balance on offense over the last two weeks. In the game Sunday night against the San Francisco 49ers, Denver finished with 27 rushing attempts and 27 passing attempts. In their Week 6 game against the New York Jets, the Broncos split the workload evenly with 33 rushing attempts and 33 passing attempts.

The running game has been a real boost for the team over this span, largely due to the play of third-year running back Ronnie Hillman.

The Broncos began the season with second-year pro Montee Ball as their starter, but he was knocked out with a groin injury in the game against the Cardinals three weeks ago. The Broncos have a "next man up" philosophy, and Hillman was the guy they called upon to do more.

Not only is Hillman doing more with a larger role, he’s looking much better than Ball has this season. Hillman is getting to and through the holes quicker, and his explosive playmaking capability has been a real asset for the league’s most dangerous offense.

So this begs the question: Will Ball return as the starter?

The Broncos are in a Super Bowl window, and they cannot afford to mess around with something that doesn’t work. They’ve wanted to achieve balance on offense all season, but they weren’t able to do so effectively when Ball was in the lineup. That’s all changed with Hillman as the starter, but it wasn’t the only change the Broncos made on offense.

The team moved offensive tackle Paul Cornick into the starting lineup for the game against the 49ers. Chris Clark began the season as the starter at right tackle, but the team wanted better play from that position so it made a change.

Broncos head coach John Fox discussed the change after the 49ers game: “We just wanted to change it up. Things hadn’t gone real good, it’s not by any stretch one person’s fault ever. This is a team game. But we made that change and we’ll evaluate that and we’ll put the best guys out there moving forward.”

Cornick is a better run-blocker than Clark, and that made a difference Sunday night for the Broncos. The Broncos rushed for 115 yards as a team with a healthy 4.3 yards per carry average against the 49ers. Cornick had been working as a tackle-eligible player over the last few weeks for the Broncos, but as the starter Sunday night, the team had more versatility with its personnel groupings.

Hillman took advantage of the larger holes Sunday night, and even though he didn’t have 100 yards rushing like he did against the Jets, Hillman arguably had a better performance.

Elsa/Getty Images

After the Week 6 game against the Jets, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning spoke honestly about how the Jets decided to defend them: “When you take your two linebackers and walk them both out on your two receivers, they’re basically kind of laughing at your running game.”

After the 49ers game, Manning was glowing when discussing the team’s ground game: “There’s no question. I think [RB] Ronnie [Hillman] has done a great job as have all the backs. [RB] Juwan [Thompson] and [RB] C.J. [Anderson], guys up-front are doing a good job and that’s’ really helping us, I think it’s helping [Offensive Coordinator] Adam [Gase] calling plays.”

Manning concluded, “We have good balance with the run and the pass and the play action so hopefully we can keep that up.” 

Hillman had a lot of praise for his offensive line after the game against the 49ers. He understands and recognizes how it blasted holes open for him all night: “Well, I got two touchdowns, so I think they’re doing a pretty good job. They came to work today and I can just be grateful for that. Just to have an offensive line like that is kind of cool. And whenever you have a quarterback like that who gives you the looks, it’s just an overall blessing.”

Comparing Stats

In an interesting turn of events, Hillman and Ball have exactly the same number of carries at this time in 2014. As you can see in the graph below, Hillman’s numbers are superior to what Ball has posted this year.

Player	Attempts	Yards	YPC	Touchdowns
Ronnie Hillman	55	240	4.36	2
Montee Ball	55	172	3.13	1

A look at the advanced stats also shows that Hillman is getting to and through the hole quicker as well.

Player	Yards Before Contact	Yards After Contact	1st Down Per Rushing Attempt
Ronnie Hillman	176	64	20.0%
Montee Ball	62	110	16.4%

This tweet is the best way to sum up the difference between the two.

"

Ronnie Hillman has more rush yds before contact (176) than Montee Ball has rushing yds (172) this yr on same number of carries (55) #Broncos

— Cecil Lammey (@cecillammey) October 20, 2014"

Summary

There is no precise timetable for when Ball will return from his groin injury. We can rationally assume that Ball will not play in Week 8 Thursday night against the San Diego Chargers. That will give Hillman another night to showcase his talent.

When asked about the short week, Hillman gave his insight about what the team’s preparation for the Chargers in Week 8 should look like: “Short turnaround, most definitely. San Diego, we know we’re going to get their best shot every time we play them. We’ve just got to prepare for them man. We’ve got a short turnaround, but we’ve got to keep our foot on the pedal, and that’s the plan.”

One player is sitting idle, while one player is trending up.

Things just don’t look good for Ball right now. Hillman has taken this opportunity—and literally—run with it.

Ball will get back to the field eventually, but his role could be drastically changed. If Hillman keeps running the way he’s done over the last two weeks, we might see him hold onto the starting job.

This doesn’t mean Ball won’t have a role if Hillman’s the starter. In fact, Ball could take over as the short-yardage and goal-line back for the Broncos.

Hillman explained that he’s starting to feel better about his confidence: “Once you start getting in there and you start getting a role and getting comfortable with everything, you kind of get in a rhythm. Every running back needs that rhythm. I don’t care what anybody says. I’m starting to get a rhythm, and it’s starting to pay off a little bit.” 

Hillman has done a fantastic job as the starter for the Broncos so far, and there’s no need to make the change back to Ball if Hillman keeps running hot.

All quotes and injury/practice observations obtained firsthand. Record/statistical information provided via email from the Denver Broncos unless otherwise noted.