Montario Hardesty Injury: Cleveland Browns Still Have Depth at RB

Cleveland Browns rookie second-round pick Montario Hardesty played hard in the first two quarters of the Browns' 13-10 victory over the Chicago Bears, but his left knee wound up getting injured in the process.

UPDATE: 9/3/10 @ 12:19 P.M. EDT: Hardesty has a torn ACL and is done for the 2010 NFL season.

After missing much of his college career with knee injuries at Tennessee, Hardesty was a fifth-year senior in 2009 when he finally was healthy enough to play all season long.

His injury history has been a concern for most Browns fans, and now they are even more concerned.

Hardesty must have made a heck of an impression on the Browns prior to the 2010 NFL Draft and enough for the Browns to spend three drafts picks on Hardesty in order to trade back into the second round to select him, too.

After bruising the bone in his right knee right before the opening day of Browns training camp began on July 31, Hardesty missed all of camp and three of the four preseason games, too.

But his debut was highly anticipated in game four against the Bears, mainly due to all the great press he received during off-season programs from the Cleveland media.

Debuting in front of the hometown fans, Hardesty took the ball on his first professional hand off by plowing forward and churning his legs, but once he got stopped by the Bears defenders, he was able to twist his body and move forward for another couple of yards.

On the first hand off, immediately you could tell that there is really something special about Hardesty, and the following six carries were no different with Hardesty never once getting pushed backward by defenders.

Hardesty even managed to get into the end-zone in his first game. That was only part of his brief debut because in the second quarter he took a hand off and went straight up the middle only to never reappear, until Browns fans saw an injured player down on the field, and instantly you could feel a lump in your throat.

That lump was knowing that Hardesty just went down with another injury, and lo and behold, it was not his right knee, which kept him out of camp and three preseason games, but it was his left knee.

Terrible.

After showing flashes of talent and potential, Hardesty might just be "one of those players."

Granted, this is only speculation, but Hardesty could be another one of those Bob Sanders-like players who are really great play-makers, but can never stay healthy for an entire season.

Two knee injuries in a five-week span led to this speculation, and Hardesty is not starting off his professional career the way both him and Browns fans would have wanted it to start.

But that is where the Browns' depth at running back is obvious.

Starter Jerome Harrison along with backup Peyton Hillis, are easily No. 1 and 2 on the depth chart, and with Hardesty going down, that gave James Davis his time to shine and he really proved how deep the Browns' backfield really is against the Bears.

Davis had 15 carries for 66 yards with a 4.4 yard per carry average and he also caught five passes for 53 yards.

There were many questions about whether Davis or fellow backup runner Chris Jennings would make the final roster at running back, and Davis clearly showed the fans and coaches that with Hardesty's injury, he is a no-brainer as a fourth running back on the chart.

Many NFL teams only carry three running backs going into the regular season, but Davis really did shine Thursday night, and Hardesty also showed the Browns that his durability issues make adding another back to the depth chart a necessity.

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