Mike Holmgren Would Have Quit If He Was The Browns HC Following Richardson Trade

Former Browns president Mike Holmgren ripped the team’s decision to trade second-year RB Trent Richardson to the Colts for a 2014 first-round pick.

“I struggled with it,’‘ Holmgren said today during an interview with Sports Radio 950 KJR, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Philosophically, if I am the coach and someone came in anywhere and did that, I’d say ‘OK, fire me, or I’m going to quit. Or we’re going to both go into the owner and talk about this and the we’ll see who’s still standing.‘ ”

“How do you make your team better by trading your best player?” Holmgren added. “He’s the best offensive player. He’s a valuable, valuable guy.”

Holmgren was asked what he would do if the GM told him he was making this trade.

 “I’d shake hands and walk. I would. Because if I disagreed with it vehemently, and I couldn’t buy in, I mean, I’m not saying I’m right, I’m saying that’s what I would do, because you have to be true to yourself in this business.”

Holmgren on possible draft day trades for Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III:

RGIII

It’s also interesting to hear Holmgren discuss some of the trades they were involved in during the days leading up to the 2012 draft. According to Holmgren, the Browns offered their No. 4 and No. 22 picks overall to the Rams for the right to select RGIII, but Washington added a third first-round pick.

Andrew Luck

Holmgren mentioned that he offered Colts GM Ryan Grigson their entire 2012 draft for the No. 1 overall pick.

“I talked to him last year (at the owner’s meetings) before we made the trade,” Holmgren said. “I said, ‘I’ll give you all of our draft picks for the No. 1 pick and I’ll take Luck. I’ll give the whole draft to you.”

“I said, ‘Ryan let’s do the deal, right now, right here.’ He said, ‘We’re taking Luck.’ We were by the pool, I might’ve even had a lemonade in my hand. He didn’t take me seriously, because I was ready to pull the trigger. They were going to take him, and they should’ve taken him. They did the right thing, but he said if some craziness would’ve happened, they would’ve taken Trent Richardson. And now a year later, they get both of them. If you asked him last year, ‘Would you trade your 24th pick in the first round for Trent Richardson,’ you would do that easily.”