Cleveland Browns Deep Backfield Poised for Smash-Mouth Football in 2010

At the end of the 2009 regular season, the Cleveland Browns were riding high with a four-game winning streak and a brand new starting running back in Jerome Harrison, who broke out to run for over 550 yards in the final three games.

Browns fans were ecstatic because they have wanted to see Harrison get the ball more since he came to the team in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft.

Durability has been an issue with Harrison in his four-year NFL career, and he hasn't appeared in all 16 games in any season yet.

After the 2009 season ended, new Browns president Mike Holmgren took full control over the team and hired a new general manager to begin the process of assessing the state of the roster.

After looking at the running back position, it is now quite obvious that both Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert thought that durability was indeed an issue with Harrison as well, and went out and picked up 6'1" 240 pound Peyton Hillis as the team's new bruiser (with soft hands to catch passes too) via the Brady Quinn trade.

Harrison is very small compared to Hillis standing only 5'9" and 205 pounds, which could also be a reason to add more depth to the position because it is very hard for a back at that size to carry the ball more than 20-25 times per game.

Also, the team of Holmgren and Heckert scouted a college back with rookie Montario Hardesty who they made a move to trade back into the second round to select and many Browns fans could not understand what the Browns were thinking since they already had Harrison, Hillis, fullback Lawrence Vickers, and James Davis.

Davis (5'11" 218 pounds) was the 2009 preseason standout, but his season was cut short due to injury and he will have a tough time making this roster. But Davis also says he is stronger than ever and if there was ever to be a dark horse candidate to surprise in the preseason it is Davis, who never forget kept C.J. Spiller on the bench at Clemson.

Now enter Hardesty, who also has had durability issues in college with his knees, but if he was fully recovered from that, then the Browns would not have taken him in the draft.

Having the size for a "featured back" in the NFL at 6'0" and 225 pounds, Hardesty has been impressing everyone from the media to the coaching staff and fans will get to see him run once training camp opens to the public in July 31.

Some Brown fans feel that the Browns are not giving Harrison the chance he deserves and earned in the last three games of the 2009 season, but Harrison also decided to miss most of the offseason program due to contract issues and that gave Hardesty all the reps with the first team and his star shined brightly without pads on.

Hardesty may have the better size, but Harrison is a great compliment to that size with his smaller frame as well. Add the bruiser in Hillis and the overall solid size and play of Davis and the Browns look to improve on their eighth ranked rushing attack from 2009.

Add in some Josh Cribbs and Seneca Wallace running from the Wildcat, the Cyclone, and perhaps even from the running back position and they both bring another dynamic to the running game too.

The last time the Browns had two running backs rush for over 1,000 yards was in 1985 when both Earnest Byner and Kevin Mack did it.

If the Browns are going to be as run heavy as it appears and head coach Eric Mangini keeps talking about, then 2010 could be a year where both Harrison and Hardesty could reach that milestone.

Sadly, Chris Jennings may be the odd back out of the group (or it could be Davis too), but he could also land on the practice squad since he too showed promising play running as a rookie in 2009 and he used under the nine game minimum to qualify to make the squad.

Anything is possible with this roster, but once mid-November hits in Cleveland, the Browns will capitalize on the extremely cold conditions by running it just as they did one season ago at the end of the season.

Having the promising group of backs that the Browns have makes it worthwhile to keep them all, especially since injuries are a frequent part of the sport and an NFL team can never really have enough running backs on their roster.

(Also posted on Dawg Scooper: THE Cleveland Browns Blog)