Montario Hardesty: NFL Draft Profile

We will take a look at Tennessee running back Montario Hardesty as he enters the 2010 NFL Draft.  We’ll examine his strengths/weaknesses, college career and our expectations for his upcoming NFL career.

Strengths

• Versatility: In 2009, Hardesty recurrently showed his versatility as he caught 25 balls on the year, which helped his draft stock radically.  It’s rare that a power back has the aptitude to consistently catch the football in the league, but if Hardesty can initially prove his worth, then he’ll be a valuable commodity for the team that takes a chance on him
• Agility: At Hardesty’s size (6’0, 225 lbs), It’s difficult to imagine Hardesty being anything besides a straight ahead runner. On the contrary, he possesses a great spin move that is underutilized, but effective
• Speed: Hardesty is deceivingly fast as he ran a 4.48 in the 40-yard dash.  He has showed the burst to beat linebackers to the edge to gain extra yardage.  While he enjoyed success in this aspect of his game in college, it’s unlikely that the same will be reciprocated in the league.  Hardesty will have to rely upon his power rushing style as Brandon Jacobs would in the NFL

Weaknesses

• Injury risk: Hardesty’s draft stock has been broken by reoccurring health concerns.  He tore his ACL in 2005; sprained ankle in 2007; stress fracture (leg) in 2008.  He may be a real talent in the league, but durability issues are a serious concern as a runner with his punishing style will hit the proverbial wall faster than the next player
• Runs too upright: With Hardesty’s laborious running style, he must drop his pad level to be able to endure the taxing hits that he withstands.  His present rushing style has contributed to his history of injuries and his style must change as the pro game will be very unforgiving on his body
• Limited production: Over the first four years of his career at Tennessee, Hardesty ran for only 1,046 yards.  He broke out his senior year as he ran for 1,345 yards, but the lack of production over his first four years is a cause for concern along with a 3.84 (yards per carry) average for his five-year stint at Tennessee

(All statistical information obtained via ESPN.com and NFLDraftCountdown.com)

Hardesty’s college career wasn’t much to speak of until his senior year where he ran for     1,345 yards (4.8 YPC) and 13 touchdowns.  For his career, he ran the ball 560 times for 2.391 yards and 26 touchdowns.

A one-year starter at Tennessee, Hardesty initiated a meteoric rise from NFL draft outcast to the 6^th best rushing prospect in the nation according to ESPN’s NFL draft guru Mel Kiper.

After his breakout senior season, it’s clear that a prolific NFL career is a realistic thought.  Hardesty possesses the necessary traits to compete for a starting job on most NFL teams.

Hardesty is a worker, and does well in all facets of the game (rushing, receiving, blocking), but I do not see star quality in the young back.  I see Brandon Jacobs when I study Hardesty, a one-cut, physical rusher that would rather run a defender over than making a slight move to avoid the extra contact and gain extra yardage.

He also will resemble Jacobs in another way; Jacobs is entering his seventh year in the league and he turns 28 In July.  The year 2009 was a down year for Jacobs as he ran for only 835 yards on 224 carries.  This stems from a hard-nosed rushing style for so long, and inevitably, it took its toll on the former Giants star.

Predictably, this will be the Montario Hardesty story as well.  A tough physical runner that enjoyed much success in his first few years in the NFL, but faded out in his sixth or seventh year; this is assuming that the injury-bug won’t return and take him out of the league first.

With only a 3.84 career rushing average, people may consider this a concern, but a 4.8 average in his senior season silenced critics on his way to a dominant year.  Compare this with Jahvid Best’s career average of 7.2 (YPC) and it is easy to see the gap in talent between the two running backs.

I’m concerned with the injuries and his lack of production over a longer stretch of time at Tennessee, but Hardesty looks as though he’ll have a nice NFL career in a two-back system because of his unwillingness to stop working.