Montee Ball Is 'Acting Like Groin Injury Never Happened'

DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Broncos running back C.J. Anderson said the competition for the starting job is a "fun competition." Fellow tailback Montee Ball might agree with that, but he's taking it very seriously after missing most of last season due to a groin injury.

Ball was the starting running back in the Broncos' first four regular season games last year. In Week 5 against Arizona he suffered a groin injury. He returned six weeks later and reinjured the groin on his second play. So Ball is very much looking forward to getting on the field again and he says he's confident the injury won't reoccur.

"It feels great -- 100 percent right now and it's just confidence. My confidence is high with it. In a way I'm kind of acting like it never even happened," Ball said on Xfinity Monday Live.

He said he's been taking a lot better care of his body since the injury.

"I've been doing my stretches and all that stuff … I feel great, coaches say I'm moving well and ready to go," he said. "I really harp now on flexibility just so I can prevent it (from happening again). Being a lot more proactive with situations like that."

It may be a healthy competition, but the fact is Ball, Anderson, Ronnie Hillman and Juwan Thompson all want to get the bulk of the carries.

"I tell (Anderson) every day that I'm coming for my spot, and he tells me every day he's going to keep it. So it's great, it's going to make the offense better, which is going to make the team better."

Last season when Anderson got the chance to play late in the season the offense became more run-oriented. Ball said he hopes it will continue in that manner.

"From what I've been seeing in practices and what we've been doing it's been good," Ball said. "Us running backs love it because (Gary) Kubiak loves to run the football, so we have a lot of run plays and it's great. It's looking really good right now."

Ball said adjusting to a new offense hasn't been that difficult because it's actually not that different than last season.

"It's not that big of a difference because our offensive coordinator told us, 'We're going to use whatever works. If the run game is working extremely well one game we're going to use that. If the pass game is working, we're going to use that.' It's all the same, it's all football at the end of the day."

Watch more of the video with Montee Ball in the Xfinity Monday Live! section.

- By Matthew J. Buettner, CBSDenver.com