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 general manager 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 7 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)."