The Falcons defied recent trends when they made the eighth overall pick of the draft on Thursday night.
No running backs had been taken in the top 20 of the draft since Saquon Barkley went second overall in 2018 and the Falcons ended that run by selecting Bijan Robinson. Robinson was highly productive at Texas and was widely viewed as a likely first-round pick in recent months, but there were still questions for the team about the value of taking a back at that point.
General Manager Terry Fontenot said Robinson’s “versatility, the impact that he’s going to make” was appealing because they want to play “positionless football” with players like Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Tyler Allegier, and Cordarrelle Patterson. Head coach Arthur Smith followed the same line of thought when sharing his view of why Robinson was worth a top 10 pick.
“Yeah, conventional wisdom, he’s a lot more than a running back,” Smith said, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com. “He’s an impact football player.”
Robinson acknowledged the consensus view of running backs at the professional level and said he hopes he can help other backs be “seen and looked at the right way” by thriving in the Falcons offense. Whatever the impact on future drafts, the Falcons share Robinson’s hope for a successful NFL future.
