Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Broncos' dispersal of running back carries tough to predict

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- In many ways, it is football jazz, a basic framework with room for improvisation, allowing for something different in every performance.

So yes, there is a reason it can be difficult to predict who is going to run the ball for the Denver Broncos. Because the guy who holds the golden ticket, running backs coach Eric Studesville, is a leading practitioner of the see-who-has-the-hot-hand approach.

"It's 100 percent by gut," Studesville said. "I go in with a number in mind where I would like guys to be, where their performance has put them in the order. ... I like have a good dispersal. But when we get in the game and all of a sudden a guy gets rolling, then you want him to keep going. It's a feel thing."

Because of this, it can be hard to predict a depth chart. The Broncos have had three different backs be a leading rusher in a game this season -- Montee Ball, Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson -- a source of consternation for fantasy football owners.

The Broncos have four backs who have rushed for at least 121 yards and four backs with at least 30 carries. Hillman has the only two 100-yard games of the season, while Anderson had 163 total yards in the win over the Raiders, including a 51-yard catch-and-run reception just before halftime that kick-started the Broncos' offense.

Some of the revolving carries have been a result of a groin injury Ball suffered Oct. 5 that kept him out of five games -- Ball is expected to be in uniform Sunday against the St. Louis Rams -- and the foot sprain Hillman suffered against the Oakland Raiders this past Sunday that is expected to keep him out of the lineup for at least two to three weeks.

But the Broncos also believe that their current depth chart allows them to mix and match players at the position. So, while the offensive coaches outline what they'd like to see unfold each week, Studesville ultimately handles the game-day rotations.

And the running backs do not leave his side during the game as they wait for the signal.

"When they say go in, I go in," Anderson said. "We know [Studesville] will gives us the sign at some point. So I don't really plan on carries or anything: I don't think any of us do."

"In some situations you have guys who do a little better at some very specific things, so maybe they handle those things -- third-down package or some other things," Studesville said. "But overall my philosophy with them is you cannot specialize. It's not good for us, it's not good for them to specialize because it limits them. I don't want us, as an offense, or the guys in our running backs room to be limited. You want the best guy out there for the majority of it, with the other guys worked in there and everybody can handle everything we do when it's their time."

Handling everything in the Broncos offense means standing up in pass protection, being able to make all of the on-the-fly changes that Peyton Manning concocts at the line of scrimmage, and to run the proper routes as a receiver.

When a back can do all of that, then -- and only then -- do they get the rock.

"Because there is always pass protection, if you don't do that, you don't get the ball," Studesville said. "I don't know when we're going to need any of them and I want to handcuff the quarterback or the coordinator by putting someone in the game and we have to worry about what they do, or don't know. So I tell them you have to be able to do it all, you have to be able to handle our whole system, then you get to run the ball.

"You have to be ready for everything, then you get the opportunity and when the opportunity arrives, what are you going to do with that opportunity? That's the order. Know everything we're doing, then you get the opportunity, not the other way around."

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