Cleveland Browns RB Montario Hardesty Is Built for Cleveland Weather

The Cleveland Browns' rookie second round pick Montario Hardesty may have missed all of training camp and three out of four games this preseason, but he is ready to show both Browns fans and the rest of the world why he is made for the city of Cleveland.

At 6' and 225 pounds, Hardesty is a big, strong, and fast running back with a fantastic spin move to boot.

But what will really set him apart from the other runners on the Browns' roster are the uncanny abilities he showed in college to both run with power on the inside and then turn on the speed to get around the corner as well.

Prior to training camp, when Hardesty bruised a bone in his knee, the Browns medical and coaching staff had him sit for most of August for precautionary reasons, due to his history of knee problems in college.

According to Cleveland.com, Hardesty has been practicing for the past weeks in full pads with his teammates, and he looks to play a lot in the final game versus the Chicago Bears in front of the hometown fans in Cleveland to prep himself for the regular season.

Everyone from ESPN to local Cleveland news could not print or talk enough about Hardesty during the off-season programs and he finally gets to show all the Browns backers why he was worth spending three draft picks on back in April's 2010 NFL draft.

Many Browns fans are on the fence about Hardesty and that is understandable. He was injury-prone in college and then he banged up his knee in his first months wearing an orange helmet.

Without having any details about the bone bruise that was sustained at the end of July, most likely he banged his knee with another rookie while not wearing pads, but this is also just a common sense guess too.

Rookies reported early for training camp at the end of July and this was when Hardesty's bone bruise occurred, He was probably practicing in shorts which is very common in late July.

But to get back to the point, Hardesty is made for Cleveland as a runner.

Why you might ask?

To start, he may have to shake off some rust against the Bears, and in the first few regular season games too, but do not doubt he has the body of a player who will be instrumental when the Cleveland weather turns for the worse in mid-to-late November.

As head coach Eric Mangini and the Browns showed at the end of the 2009 season, once the weather gets really cold, the Browns turn into a run-first team, even when the opposing defenses knew the Browns were going to run, they still could not stop them.

With Hardesty on board, he will be running on all cylinders hopefully sooner than later, but definitely when November rolls in barring any further injuries and he will easily be a big feature on offense in those bad weather games and when the snow starts to fall.

Yes Jerome Harrison, who is a smaller back, but was able to carry that burden one season ago, was carrying the running game along with a bit of Josh Cribbs sprinkled in last season.

This season though, there will not be those games when Harrison has to carry the ball over 30-plus times per game because Hardesty and Peyton Hillis will help ease the added stress of carrying the ball many times.

The Browns being in Cleveland are a cold weather team and both Mangini and the fans know to win in the last half of the season, you have to run the ball often in that cold weather.

That is where having bigger backs like Hardesty and Hillis will help because the last thing an opposing defense wants to do when playing on the frozen field at Cleveland Browns Stadium is to stay on the field while two 225-plus pound running backs are pounding into them and then a shifty Harrison and the ever-tough-to-tackle Cribbs are brought in to switch it up.

Not saying the Browns will be playing for a playoff spot come the end of the 2010 season, but do not be surprised if they can win more games than they lose once again in the second half of this season just because they are built to win in the cold weather.

The Browns look to do just that with their deep backfield in 2010, and far beyond that.

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