2023 NFL draft – Inside Bijan Robinson’s second stint with the Falcons

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — After Bijan Robinson was selected No. 8 overall by the Atlanta Falcons on the highest level of football, the 21-year-old went all the way back to the beginning.

There was a sense of symmetry for Robinson. His first professional team and the first-ever football team he played on shared a mascot — the Falcons.

Of course, the Tucson Falcons were nowhere close to the Atlanta Falcons. Not in the same state or time zone — Robinson grew up in Arizona — but it did begin the running back’s love of the game he’ll now be paid to do.

“That was a fun time playing with them,” Robinson said. “We stole every slogan from the Falcons. We were the Dirty Birds, we came through heavy.

“But yeah, that was my first team right there and it’s just crazy that now we’re here.”

Like I said God had it written all along! So happy to get rollin with the @AtlantaFalcons #biablessing pic.twitter.com/Ldw7UdRKii

— Bijan Robinson (@Bijan5Robinson) April 28, 2023

Robinson wore No. 8 in his first year playing football, but that’s not a number he’ll likely wear in Atlanta since it belongs to tight end Kyle Pitts. In his second season, he wore No. 1 — currently worn by cornerback Jeff Okudah.

Robinson said he doesn’t know what number he’ll wear yet, saying “we’ll see what happens,” but it was a small piece of his past fitting into his present when he ended up on the Falcons for the second time in his life.

In between, he played for the Salpointe Catholic Lancers in high school and the Texas Longhorns before returning once again to the Falcons in Atlanta. He won a Pop Warner league national title playing for the Marana Broncos in 2014 as a running back and linebacker.

The team was written about in the local media and in a TucsonLocalMedia story, Robinson was quoted in the story, saying “we were confident and nervous at the same time. I mean I was nervous.”

There were no obvious nerves…