Does Montee Ball have cinder blocks for hands?

[Broncosballer32]

He appears to have real hands of stone. I mean the ball get to him and the ball bounces off his hands. He needs to really work on his pass catching skills.

 

[WalkerBoh]

He appears to have real hands of stone. I mean the ball get to him and the ball bounces off his hands. He needs to really work on his pass catching skills.

After the Jaguars game, EVERYONE needs to work on their pass catching skills

 

[MrDoc420]

LOL. Good call.

Montee looks like a rook bigtime. Let's just hope it's first year jitters and that he'll improve.

 

[Broncos6482]

So far taking Ball over Eddie Lacey isn't looking like a very good choice.

 

[MrDoc420]

So far taking Ball over Eddie Lacey isn't looking like a very good choice.

I wanted Lacy from the start. Not sure what the thinking was there.

 

[Broncos6482]

I wanted Lacy from the start. Not sure what the thinking was there.

I believe they felt that Lacy had more injury concerns, so they went with Ball instead.

 

[xBxtxDx]

I believe they felt that Lacy had more injury concerns, so they went with Ball instead.

This is correct.

 

[MileHigh64]

I agree with all of you that Montee Ball has been an early season disappointment, but I also think he's going through some pretty normal rookie adjustments. I'm not sure that he was ever going to be the kind of power back that Lacy was coming out of college. Now having said that, he better start showing some serious progress pretty soon for him not to get that year one "bust" label.

Part of his issue may be that Knowshon is getting most of the game time reps. Ball needs a lot more work and I was hoping that the Jacksonville game was going to get him some, but we all saw how that turned out.

 

[MrDoc420]

I believe they felt that Lacy had more injury concerns, so they went with Ball instead.

Yah, I remember some of that. Lacy has played pretty well though. Ball has been underwhelming. Still a rookie though, so we'll give him a couple years at least.

 

[Morpheus]

Yah, I remember some of that. Lacy has played pretty well though. Ball has been underwhelming. Still a rookie though, so we'll give him a couple years at least.

Really?? He's got 1 rushing TD on the year and about 260 yards on 60 + carries. Not exactly lighting it up.

Green Bay is doing RB by committee in an attempt to keep defenses honest but everyone knows Rodgers will be airing it out. None of their RB have great rushing numbers so far this season.

 

[Broncos6482]

Really?? He's got 1 rushing TD on the year and about 260 yards on 60 + carries. Not exactly lighting it up.

Green Bay is doing RB by committee in an attempt to keep defenses honest but everyone knows Rodgers will be airing it out. None of their RB have great rushing numbers so far this season.

He's playing pretty well, don't forget he missed some time due to a concussion. Regardless, he's certainly looked a lot better than Ball so far.

 

[Malibu]

Ball was the product of a great o line. P.J. Hill, Ron Dayne, Brian Calhoun, Brent Moss, Michael Bennet. All Badger RB's that were pretty much garbage in the NFL. Hopefully Im wrong but was never thrilled with the pick and Ive seen Ball numerous times living in Wisconsin.

 

[xBxtxDx]

Denver Broncos: A Look into the Struggles of Montee Ball | Bleacher Report

The above is an article from Cecil Lammey discussing Ball's struggles, he has a lot of the same concerns as have been stated here. He brings up a valid point though in that Ball is trying to do to much at one time, is hesitant in making decisions, and has not had the game slow down for him yet. This is all rookie stuff and yes, I acknowledge the fact that RB is supposed to be the easiest position to learn. I would normally agree that it is and if we were almost any other team I would agree. The thing though, is we are not, our offense is a PMFM led offense.

Why does it matter that he is in a Peyton Manning offense? If you have to ask yourself that question, you are not paying attention to the Broncos pre-snap then. The best description I can think of it is organized chaos. The RB has to not only diagnose what Manning is telling him, he also has to make decisions based on what he is seeing also. Manning does not tell them everything, there are hot reads that the RBs/WRs/TEs have to make also. Case in point, the San Diego game at Qualcomm last year. The CB had off coverage, Matt Willis was supposed to run a curl route with off coverage, instead he did not read the hot route and ran a go route which is what the initial play was called as and a pick six occured. So, no, this is not the typical situation where the RB has to line up and then hit the hole, which is why they say that RB is the easiest position to learn. The RB in this offense has to think and make decisions and he also has a relentless task master demanding perfection in PMFM. If a player cannot make those decisions rapidly and correctly, they will not be in the game nor will PMFM give them the ball.

Another reason Ball has not been seeing a lot of the field is frankly Knowshon is downright playing good ball and he is outplaying the other RB's on the roster. Knowshon is essentially making it difficult for the coaches to take him off of the field. He is getting the tough yards after contact instead of falling to the ground after contact, he somehow has developed a nose for the end zone, is our best pass blocker, and is our best receiver out of the backfield. In essence, he finally gets it, so see, it can take some time for a RB to develop coming out of college.

Final note, actually BB, Ball was scouted as having average to above average hands out of the backfield and is 2 of 4 currently with the 2 drops against the Jaguars being his incompletions. I would probably more attribute it to him thinking to much and trying not to make mistakes than him having cinder block hands. Though, I imagine you will still go with your doom and gloom/ glass is empty/conspiracy theory view as usual.

 

[cdumler7]

The sample size on Ball at this point is way too small to judge how he is going to do in this league. He has had a couple of really nice runs that show some of the talent that he brings to the table but as pointed out this offense is such a cerebral thing that for a rookie already trying to adjust to the speed of the NFL to have to think that much more than most players coming into the league it makes sense that he has had some struggles. My guess is toward the end of the year we will begin to see some flashes more of what he can bring to the table. I'm just hoping Moreno stays healthy all year so that Ball can get that year or two to develop into the bell cow all of us hoped for.

Now about Eddie Lacy he has already missed time this season because of injury and this is a big reason the Broncos did not take him and why so many other teams even took him off their board. I guess time will tell if Lacy can overcome the injury label but honestly I still don't disagree with the choice of Ball over Lacy.

 

[MrDoc420]

Really?? He's got 1 rushing TD on the year and about 260 yards on 60 + carries. Not exactly lighting it up.

Green Bay is doing RB by committee in an attempt to keep defenses honest but everyone knows Rodgers will be airing it out. None of their RB have great rushing numbers so far this season.

Yes. Really. He's averaging nearly 4.5 yards a carry and broke his first 100 yard game last week. Overall, yes, I would say he's played pretty well in the 4 games he's seen action.

 

[Morpheus]

Yes. Really. He's averaging nearly 4.5 yards a carry and broke his first 100 yard game last week. Overall, yes, I would say he's played pretty well in the 4 games he's seen action.

It's still too small a sample to make any definitive judgement on and the injuries are a concern.

Time will tell.

Besides, 2nd guessing draft picks is pointless. It's not like John Elway is reading this post and will think to himself, "Those guys are right. We should have drafted Lacy."




At week 6 in their rookie year, I don't see any huge disparity in performance by either.

Feel free to compare their numbers at the end of the season.

 

[Broncos6482]

It's still too small a sample to make any definitive judgement on and the injuries are a concern.

Time will tell.

Besides, 2nd guessing draft picks is pointless. It's not like John Elway is reading this post and will think to himself, "Those guys are right. We should have drafted Lacy."




At week 6 in their rookie year, I don't see any huge disparity in performance by either.

Feel free to compare their numbers at the end of the season.

Come on, really? You don't see a huge disparity between 61 carries, 270 yards, 4.4 ypa, a touchdown and 43 carries, 139 yards, 3.2 ypa?

Of course, it's really early and Ball could still turn out to be the better pick, but so far, Lacy has been better and it's not even close.

 

[Morpheus]

Come on, really? You don't see a huge disparity between 61 carries, 270 yards, 4.4 ypa, a touchdown and 43 carries, 139 yards, 3.2 ypa?

Of course, it's really early and Ball could still turn out to be the better pick, but so far, Lacy has been better and it's not even close.

Lacy has twice the carries that Ball has.

He has seen the field more than Ball.

If Moreno was injured, (god forbid) Ball would probably have a lot more carries and it would be more of an apples to apples comparison.

Lacy has better stats but over a small sample size so far and he is playing more than ball because Moreno is the work horse (pun intended) here in Denver.

Not enough data to make any kind of informed opinion. Too many variables, the different teams they have played, different defenses faced, it's not side by side all things equal. Not even close.

 

[Broncos6482]

Lacy has twice the carries that Ball has.

He has 18 more. That's not even 50% more, let alone twice as many.

He has seen the field more than Ball.

And he's been better when he's on it than Ball has been.

If Moreno was injured, (god forbid) Ball would probably have a lot more carries and it would be more of an apples to apples comparison.

You can look at yards per attempt to get a true apples to apples comparison.

Lacy has better stats but over a small sample size so far and he is playing more than ball because Moreno is the work horse (pun intended) here in Denver.

Not enough data to make any kind of informed opinion. Too many variables, the different teams they have played, different defenses faced, it's not side by side all things equal. Not even close.

I understand it's a small sample size, and that's why no one is claiming that the Broncos clearly made the wrong choice because obviously things can change, but it's undeniable that SO FAR Lacy has been far better than Ball.

 

[Morpheus]

He has 18 more. That's not even 50% more, let alone twice as many.



And he's been better when he's on it than Ball has been.



You can look at yards per attempt to get a true apples to apples comparison.



I understand it's a small sample size, and that's why no one is claiming that the Broncos clearly made the wrong choice because obviously things can change, but it's undeniable that SO FAR Lacy has been far better than Ball.

Misread the attempts, thanks for clarifying, and yes, Lacy has better numbers than Ball at the moment but the point is he has more carries and it's only through 6 games and Ball is not the starter, Lacy has been the starter when he is healthy.

One could surmise that if Ball was the starter, his numbers might be better. He would have more attempts, thus more opportunities to improve his YPC average. Lacy has had more scoring opportunities and yet only 1 TD.

My only point, not trying to discredit any of your opinions, is that the sample size is small, it is not a balanced side by side comparison by any means.

Lacy has slightly better numbers, that does not necessarily mean he is "undeniably" the better running back. 1 TD and roughly 1 yard more per carry average over such a small sample is not a huge difference.

So far he has the edge in production, but he has been injured so that negates a small edge in production IN MY OPINION.