Mike Holmgren: Browns offered entire 2012 draft for Andrew Luck

The Cleveland Browns were widely criticized for not beating the offer the Washington Redskins made to the St. Louis Rams to move up and select Robert Griffin III with the No. 2 selection in the 2012 NFL Draft.

Former general manager Mike Holmgren says it wasn't because the Browns were comfortable with their quarterback situation at the time (they ended up trading up to No. 3 to select Trent Richardson, and then selecting Brandon Weeden at No. 22).

In an interview on 950 KJR-AM in Seattle, Holmgren revealed the Browns offered their entire 2012 draft to the Indianapolis Colts to move up to No. 1 to take Andrew Luck. The Colts, clearly, declined the offer.

Holmgren joked that he made the offer to first-year Colts general manager Ryan Grigson while Grigson was sitting by a pool, “having one of those little drinks with an umbrella in it so I thought I could take advantage of him.”

While offering an entire draft sounds impressive on the surface, what the Browns offered the Colts may actually have been less valuable than what the Redskins sent to the Rams for the right to draft Griffin. 

Entering the 2012 draft, the Browns' picks included two first-rounders, a second, a third, two fourths, two fifths and a seventh. The Browns also had two sixth-round compensatory picks, as well two in the seventh. Compensatory picks cannot be traded.

Thus, the Browns offered the Colts a total of nine draft picks. The bulk of them were in the later rounds, however.

In the Griffin trade, the Redskins sent the Rams three first-round picks and a second.