The 2012 NFL draft was loaded with great players like Andrew Luck, Harrison Smith, Chandler Jones, and Luke Kuechly. All four players turned out to be stellar athletes in the NFL. But the headline of the draft was a blockbuster trade that happened before it.
2012 NFL draft results: All picks over 7 rounds
The Rams-Washington blockbuster trade was the big storyline of this draft.
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The then-St. Louis Rams held the No. 2 pick in the 2012 NFL draft. Luck and Robert Griffin III were the two top prospects that year, and both were expected to get selected early. However, the Rams didn’t want to draft a quarterback because they had Sam Bradford.
Washington, which held the No. 6 pick in the draft, felt it needed a quarterback to bolster the offense. So, it decided to trade up with the Rams to draft Griffin. Washington mortgaged its 2012, 2013, and 2014 first-round picks for the Rams’ No. 2 slot. Washington also threw in a 2012 second-round pick to make the deal more attractive.
See every pick from all seven rounds from previous NFL Drafts:
Washington drafted Griffin with the second pick, and he went on to win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. After Griffin injured his knee in the late stages of rookie campaign, his production sharply declined, which led to Washington letting him walk in free agency in 2016. In retrospect, Washington made a bad move by giving the Rams four picks for a quarterback who ended up as a one-hit wonder. Washington also drafted quarterback Kirk Cousins in the fourth round that year, and he is now the team’s franchise quarterback.
But this draft consisted of many questionable picks. The Cleveland Browns whiffed on both their first-round picks: running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden. The following year, Cleveland ended up shipping Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts for a 2014 first-round pick. The 26-year-old running back battled weight and production issues over his career and hasn’t played a regular season game since 2014.
Weeden, on the other hand, played two seasons in Cleveland before the team released him in 2014. The Browns went 5-15 when Weeden was under center. He struggled with production during his tenure with the Browns but found work as a backup for the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.
All in all, some teams, like in each draft, made horrible decisions. But that Washington-Rams trade was the storyline of that 2012 draft. Here are all the picks from that 2012 draft:
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