Cleveland Browns General Manager admits the torn knee ligament suffered by rookie running back Montario Hardesty is disappointing, but says the team does not regret trading up to draft him in the second round.
Montario Hardesty, who suffered several injuries in college, is helped off the field after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the exhibition finale on Thursday. He was placed on injured reserve and is out for the season.Browns General Manager Tom Heckert defended his decision to draft Montario Hardesty despite the running back's injury history, but he admitted it was a little risky.
Hardesty suffered a torn left anterior cruciate ligament in the final preseason game against the Bears and is on injured reserve for the season. He will undergo surgery, then embark on an estimated 9- to 12-month rehabilitation process.
"Was it riskier than a guy that had never been injured?" Heckert said Sunday on a conference call. "Yeah, but we felt comfortable when we took him that he was going to be OK. We obviously brought him in for physicals and we spent a lot of time with our doctors, and we felt comfortable doing that."
The Browns traded a third-round pick and two picks in the fifth round to move up to take Hardesty in the second round with the 59th overall choice. Heckert says the team is confident that Hardesty can come back next year. He also had surgery to repair a torn right ACL as a freshman at the University of Tennessee in 2005 and had the knee drained last season. But it didn't stop him from rushing for 1,345 yards and 13 TDs in 2009. Hardesty also had a left knee scope, a stress fracture in his foot and a high ankle sprain while at Tennessee.
"I'm sure everybody says this all the time, but the doctor said it was strictly the ACL and the rest of the knee looked good," said Heckert. "We're treating it as a normal ACL. We're confident that he can come back and be fine."
He said the team has no regrets about letting Hardesty play Thursday night against the Bears despite only two full practices in shorts leading up to the game. He had missed the rest of preseason with a right bone bruise suffered in the rookie portion of camp. It happened in a tackling drill, but not during contact. The decision to play him was a joint one among coach Eric Mangini, Heckert and team President Mike Holmgren.
"It was something that we all talked about," said Heckert. "He hadn't taken a hit. Obviously he had a knee thing, but it wasn't the [same] knee that he hurt. It was bad, but it wasn't like he re-injured his knee. No. We had no questions.
"And Montario was on board as well. He wanted to play and we felt comfortable with him going out there and playing. It's just one of those things that happen. They happen every year."
He could not confirm several reports that Hardesty was flagged during the draft because of microfracture surgery on his right knee. Microfracture involved drilling small holes in the knee to spur the growth of a cartilage-like substance.
"I'm not real sure," he said. "I'd have to go back and look. But I really don't want to get into what surgery he had or didn't have."
Heckert acknowledged the loss of Hardesty is "a blow."
James Davis went into the last exhibition game seemingly on the bubble as far as making the Browns' roster. But an injury to Montario Hardesty and a good performance by Davis suddenly has him in the mix at running back as the Browns prepare for Sunday's opener in Tampa.
"We expected him to be here and he's not," Heckert said. "But I think James Davis played very well in the last game and he had a good preseason last year, and he was a guy that obviously the Browns liked when they drafted him and he was a guy that we liked in Philadelphia, so we think he can be a productive player.
"Right now, with [Jerome] Harrison and him -- and Peyton Hillis obviously had a good preseason . . . we're comfortable there."
Davis finished the preseason first in rushing with 103 yards on 26 carries (4.0 average), Hillis was second with 80 yards on 21 carries (3.8) and a TD, and Harrison was third with 72 yards on 23 carries (3.1) and a TD.
Heckert said Hillis' preseason performance helps take the edge off Hardesty's loss.
"There's no question," he said. "And I think with James' performance it's the same way. Peyton is a proven running back. Whatever happened in Denver last year where he wasn't getting as many carries [I don't know]. But when [former coach Mike] Shanahan was there, he got the ball. I think he can run the football. And James Davis has played well in training camp and the preseason. We have three very capable backs."
Heckert addressed a number of other topics in his 25-minute conference call:
On Shaun Rogers being ready for the opener: "He's going to start practicing here this week, and we think he's going to be ready to play. We'll have to wait and see how he practices, but we're expecting him to be out there. [Including John St. Clair and Floyd Womack], we expect them all to be ready to go for the first week."
On D'Qwell Jackson's return: "We think he's going to be back sooner rather than later [possibly two to three weeks]. But the exact date, I'm not quite sure on that."
On more roster moves: "There will be another round of cuts today [after teams claim players and need to make room] and we'll just have to see who's going to be available."
On carrying 12 linebackers: "Twelve is a lot of linebackers, but with D'Qwell obviously not going to be ready for the first couple of games, or whenever he's going to be ready, that obviously factors into it. We'll have to wait and see the next couple of days."
On having three cornerbacks: "We think we have four because we throw Mike Adams in there as a two-way player. Mike started [the last six games] at corner last year. That's something we're looking at, but with Mike, we think we're OK right now."
On other receivers: Heckert said the team isn't interested in former Bengals and Seahawks receiver T.J. Houshmanzadeh, and wouldn't say if the Browns were the team that thought it had a deal Saturday for San Diego receiver Vincent Jackson.
On Nick Sorensen's concussion: "We're going to let our doctors handle that one, but we don't think it's going to be a very long time [before he's back]. He's doing well. He really is."
On the team's chances this season: "I think we're going to compete, I really do. We all said this when we came in here. This is not going to be a rebuilding deal where we're just going to wipe everybody out and start all over. But we think we have a chance to compete and that's our goal."
Signed to practice squad: The Browns signed six players to the practice squad: DB Larry Asante, OL Paul Fanaika, DL Travis Ivey, OL Pat Murray, DL Brian Sanford and DB DeAngelo Smith. All had been waived by the club Saturday. McDonald to Cards: Cornerback Brandon McDonald was claimed by the Arizona Cardinals. He'll be reunited with newly installed starter Derek Anderson. McDonald tweeted: "I'm officially a Arizona Cardinal. Thanks fa all da support and thanks fa da opportunity to b apart of somethn #great...ITS TRU."