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Former Browns president Mike Holmgren told a Seattle radio station he couldn't believe the Browns would trade a player as talented as Trent Richardson.

(Plain Dealer file photo)

BEREA, Ohio -- Former Browns President Mike Holmgren, who traded up a notch to No. 3 to draft Trent Richardson last year, ripped the Browns for trading Richardson to the Colts for a first-round pick in 2014, saying he'd quit as a head coach if a team traded away his best offensive player and that it was a knee-jerk reaction.

"I struggled with it,'' Holmgren said today on Sports Radio 950 KJR in Seattle with host Dave "Softy'' Mahler. "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.' ''

Holmgren, who was let go by new owner Jimmy Haslam and CEO Joe Banner at the end of last season, posed the question that many Browns fans are thinking.

"How do you make your team better by trading your best player?'' he said. "He's the best offensive player. He's a valuable, valuable guy.''

He said he watched the press conference conducted Wednesday by Banner and coach Rob Chudzinski and "clearly the coach is OK with this because they sat at the news conference together. I personally would not be OK with it. It was my best offensive player, a young guy. Not an eight-year vet. He's a young guy.''

He said if the GM told him in the owner's office he was making the 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 traded a fourth-, fifth- and seventh-round pick in the 2012 draft to Minnesota to move up a spot to draft Richardson at No. 3. Richardson rushed for 950 yards and 11 TDs last year, but averaged only 3.6 yards per carry, in part because he had broken ribs.

He said Browns players must feel like the front office is giving up on the season.

"You can't tell me some of those players aren't asking some of the questions you and I are asking,'' he said to Mahler. "They were friends with (Richardson). It's too wild. This sort of thing doesn't happen, and it happened, so asking questions about it would be natural.''

The current regime would not have drafted Richardson at No. 4 let alone trading three picks to move up to get him, league sources told Cleveland.com. What's more, they are not sold on Holmgren's pick of Brandon Weeden at No. 22, and are watching No. 37 Mitchell Schwartz, the right tackle, very closely. Banner and General Manager Mike Lombardi also would not have spent a second-round pick in 2013 on Josh Gordon in the supplemental draft.

The general feeling, the sources said, is that Holmgren and former GM Tom Heckert botched the top picks, and now the new group is paying the price.

"To me, they're putting all their eggs for next season,'' said Holmgren. "They started off 0-2, they couldn't score any points, I think it was a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction. There's a little bit of a 'what's going on?' I don't know this for sure but I can sense it.

"Indianapolis is probably going to have a pretty good year, so that pick is probably going to be 23, 24, right in there. And to package something (to move up in the draft), we couldn't package our 4 and our (22) for (Robert Griffin III) last year and we had more ammunition (Holmgren offered the No. 4 and No. 22 as well, but the Redskins offered three first-rounders)."

Holmgren said his daughter called him and told him about the trade.

"I thought she was kidding around,'' he said. "I didn't believe it. I went on my computer and saw it. I had a lot of emotions, because I really liked the young man and I really think he's an outstanding football player. It was something that we needed, and he had a really fine first year and he played through pain and injury, so I was startled by that. ''

He added, "on the surface, I tried to make sense of it. I wanted to know what in the world? It appears after seeing the press conference, they're not coming out and saying it, but they're preparing for next year's draft. I listened to the coach and he says we want to be competitive. Who's going to be the running back? They don't even know who's going to be the running back this week.''

How much better does this make the Colts?

"Oh boy, indoor and on turf?'' said Holmgren.

He re-iterated that he offered Colts GM Ryan Grigson his entire 2012 draft to move up to No. 1 to take Andrew Luck.

"I talked to him last year (at the owner's meetings) before we made the trade,'' he 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.''

He said he doesn't know Chudzinski personally, but "I know people that know him. They say he's a great coach, a good guy and has been in the league long enough. You're right though, it's his first head coaching job, but boy-oh-boy, there would be a conversation.''

And over the next several years, you can bet there will be plenty.

Here is audio from the interview: