Montee Ball

A touchdown machine in college, the 5-10, 215-pound Ball is a physical, tackle-shedding downhill runner with decent receiving skills who averaged 4.7 YPC as a rookie last season. Now, with Knowshon Moreno out of the picture, he's got perhaps the best job in football – taking handoffs from Peyton Manning as the Broncos' odds-on starter at running back. While Ball will likely cede some (certainly not all) passing-down duty to Ronnie Hillman, a more electric runner who can make big plays in space, Hillman doesn't have the frame to be an every-down back, and third-stringer C.J. Anderson isn't much of a threat. The greatest concern for Ball is, well, ball security – he fumbled three times in 140 touches last year, a very high rate that he simply can't sustain if he wants to hold down his job. Fully healthy and ready to handle the load – including goal-line duties, where he looked good in limited action last year – Ball is poised to make a major fantasy impact this time around.

A second-round pick in this year's draft, Ball piled up 3,753 rushing yards and a remarkable 61 total touchdowns in his final two years at Wisconsin. The NCAA's career leader with 83 touchdowns, Ball is a decisive, downhill runner with good vision and burst at the line of scrimmage. While he may not be the fastest or biggest back, at 5-10, 214, he is plenty shifty, knows how to follow his blocks and has the strength and toughness to absorb contact and shed tacklers. Veterans Willis McGahee and Knowshon Moreno combined for more than 1,200 yards and eight scores on 305 carries last year for the Broncos, but with McGahee released and Moreno coming off a knee injury, the lead role in the Denver backfield is Ball's for the taking. Ronnie Hillman should also provide a change of pace as the team's speed back, but Ball could own the goal-line work and already might be a better pass protector than Hillman. In a Denver offense that scored 30.1 points per game last year, there's a lot of upside here.