When Broncos V.P. John Elway was Broncos QB John Elway, the team’s greatest success came at the end of his career, when he had one of the NFL’s best running backs, Terrell Davis, to carry a large part of the load.
Now Elway hopes the running back he drafted last month, Montee Ball, can have a similar effect.
“His running style was a lot like Terrell Davis,” Elway said of Ball during a conference call with fans, via the Denver Post. “We hope that Montee has a career and even a longer career than Terrell had.”
Davis was MVP of the league in 1998 and helped the Broncos win back-to-back Super Bowls, but he had only four effective seasons before injuries ruined a promising career. The Broncos say it was a desire not to have an injured back that led them to draft Ball over Alabama’s Eddie Lacy.
“We liked both these backs, we had them very similar on the board,” Broncos personnel man Matt Russell said. “The issue with Eddie Lacy was we were worried about a toe injury that he had which is probably what caused him to slip. And we really felt great about Montee Ball. We feel we have a career back in Montee Ball.”
If Ball has the kind of instant impact that Davis had, Peyton Manning may end his career in Denver as successfully as Elway did.