Mike Holmgren believes finding a franchise quarterback is of paramount importance for building a team that can consistently compete for a Super Bowl title. It was with that thought in mind that he approached Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson at the owners’ meetings last year.
During an interview with Dave “Softy” Mahler of 950 KJR-AM in Seattle, Holmgren said he was willing to offer a huge windfall to the Colts in the way of draft picks from the Cleveland Browns for the rights to draft Andrew Luck.
“I talked to (Grigson) before we made the trade (up to the No. 3 overall pick to select Trent Richardson), I said ‘I’ll give you all our draft picks for the number one pick and I’ll take Luck,’” Holmgren said.
Holmgren joked that they were both sitting by the pool and Grigson was “having one of those little drinks with an umbrella in it so I thought I could take advantage of him.”
The Browns made 10 selections in the 2012 draft after dealing away selections in the fourth, fifth and seventh rounds to move up to take Richardson. It would have meant Holmgren was willing to send close to 13 picks (before other trades in the draft) to the Colts for the rights to take Luck with the first pick.
Grigson shot Holmgren down and told him they were going to take Luck. He said Grigson probably didn’t take the offer seriously, though Holmgren did put it on the table.
“I probably offered it knowing he wouldn’t take it,” Holmgren said. “If he had said OK, I probably would have choked on my offer.”
Holmgren said the Colts made the right decision in standing pat and taking Luck. One piece Holmgren added was that Grigson supposedly said that if something weird had happened with Luck, they wanted to take Richardson with the top selection.
Now the Colts have both Luck and Richardson.