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The salary cap strapped Denver Broncos reached out to Ronnie Hillman last week to begin discussing a deal to return to the team for 2016, according to Mike Klis of 9News. However, every other NFL team who is also interested in Hillman has more cap space to work with, so a deal is far from certain.
Broncos express interest in bringing back Ronnie Hillman https://t.co/ncGHJERW4g via @@9NEWS #9news #9sports
— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) April 4, 2016
Hillman's seasons sort of petered out a bit near the end, but he was a bit explosive early in his twelve game run as the teams' starter, racking up 863 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging a respectable 4.2 yards per carry to finish as the leading rusher for the Broncos in 2015.
Despite four 100 yard rushing games during the regular season, including the season finale against the San Diego Chargers, he became increasingly ineffective in the playoffs.
| Opponent | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carolina Panthers | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New England Patriots | 11 | 16 | 1.5 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 16 | 38 | 2.4 | 0 |
His performance was so poor that C.J. Anderson returned as the clear favorite to start by Super Bowl 50 and was recently inked to a four-year $18 million deal by the Broncos.
Interest in Hillman to start free agency was fairly tepid, but that is no longer the case. John Elway's interest here could be a hedge against being forced to draft need over best available at some point during the NFL Draft.