 Okay, so it's draft morning. What's the setup? What's everything like? You know, is it all digitized? Are you doing anything by hand? Like, what's going on there? So we're not all digital yet. We still got the old school magnets. Kyle Smith, our VP of player personnel, he's been in draft rooms forever. His thing is, you can't touch the magnet. After we actually submit the pick, once we talk to the player on the phone, then we can go pull the magnet down and move it. But if you touch it beforehand, he'll lose it. With the eighth pick and the 2023 NFL draft, the Atlanta Valkyries select, Bijan Robinson, running back to Texas. It's really unbelievable. What makes him so special is he's such a versatile player. So you'll have certain players that they win with elusiveness, or speed, or quickness, or power, or strength. But he has all those traits. So he can win so many different ways. When he gets the ball in his hands, he really is a dynamic weapon. And out into the open along the sideline, that's Bijan Robinson. I am all about his, like, 6.3 yards per rush for his career. Yeah, and you see the body control. Wherever the ball is, when you have that type of body control, you're never covered. That's where him getting out in space and being able to make plays like that is impressive. Man, I just appreciate the Falcons for picking me. And, you know, I promise I won't let them down, but man, God is so good and I can't wait. With your pick, number eight. Just walk us through, like, all right, it's seven. You see the Raiders are on the clock, and now you're thinking, okay, like, just take us up to that moment. Man, we're so excited that he was there because you have a stack of players, and you basically have them ordered that if this player is there, this is what we'll do. Then leading up to your pick, you want to determine should you move back, should you stay there and take the player, and you have to really risk getting another draft pick, but risking losing this particular player. So there's a lot going through your mind, but we get there, and this player's on the board. We know everything that he can mean for this team, for this organization, and the dynamic playmaker that he is. It's just so exciting. Usually you want to be patient, and you don't want to turn the pick in right away, and you want to take the phone calls, but as soon as the Raiders turn their pick in, I wanted to call and get them on the phone right away. Did you wait? We waited, but it wasn't easy. How you doing? Just cherry fondle with the Falcons. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We're going to pick you right here, man. Hey, let's go. Thank God, man. With the 38th pick in the 2023 NFL draft, the Atlanta Falcons have selected Matthew Bergeron, guard Syracuse. Going into your second round pick, you traded up from 44 to 38. You got your guard, Matthew Bergeron, Syracuse, and you said guard, but he played left tackle in college. So ultimately you have a vision for him. Yes, and we have a vision for him at guard, and yet the cool thing about him is he can play those other positions as well. He can play left tackle, right tackle, either guard position. So even if the vision for this year is guard, who knows what can happen in the future. This is a massive man, and he's athletic. You talk about 6'5", big long arms. So when you get a big man like that that moves the way he does, there's only so many on the planet. There's some things that I know our coaches are going to help him improve on, but we love the skill set, and we love the intent and the makeup. So we had a lot of passion for him, and we wanted to get in a position to be able to pick him. Yeah, he's definitely a large human being. He is a large human being, and like you said, he's playing left tackle, and he can play tackle in the league. For us, we really look at him, even as tall as he is, he's flexible. He can bend, he can anchor, he has strong, powerful hands, powerful lower body, but then he's really smart. He's naturally confident, and you know he's the type of guy that's going to fit in really good with our offensive line room. So you can see how when the camera pans out or goes somewhere else, he's always still blocking their players off the tape. That's right. And so you see the finish and the effort, the intent that he has, even if it's not always pretty, he's always trying to finish. Hey, Matt, this is Arthur Blank. I'm doing great. We're doing a lot better since we just drafted you. With the 75th pick, the Atlanta Falcons select from the Ohio State University, Zach Harrison. Offensive end. Pass rush. An area of need. It is now round three, pick 75. You're watching this Ohio State film. Yeah. You're looking at a very large man. Large man. In free agency, you brought in another very large man. Yeah. You kind of got like a, like you have a type, a defensive end type this year, right? Huge. Offensive line, defensive line, we don't have the most physical, violent lines in football because that's where games are won and lost. And so we can get the pretty skilled position players that can make touchdowns and catch interceptions. But you got to establish the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. That's where you're going to win and lose games. So you get to Zach Harrison, and you talk about big. He's a tick under 6'6". 36 inch arms. He had the longest arms and the widest wingspan of any defensive end drafted this year. He's a big, long physical man. You see the way he gets off the ball, the way he uses his hands, and again, he's relentless. Whether it's the run game, the pass game, he's a guy that fights through the whistle. I love it. I love him and Kalea. It's like good luck. Have fun with that. Oh goodness. Five forced fumbles over the last two seasons. Pretty good. Is that a length? Yeah. Tons of length. Yeah, for sure. Clark. Hey, we're going to turn this this pick in right here, man. We can't wait to get you down here. We know how you're going to go to work, man. You're going to be a part of something special, all right? Yes, sir. I'm ready to go. A lot of players who drafted were some of our favorite interviews, but he was probably the best of all time. Why is that? This little smile on your face. When he walks in, he walks in the room, and he is. Look, he's 5'9". But he comes in and he is present right away. He was such a cocky and a good way, confident player. Like, he knows, he has no doubt in his mind that he's going to make it in the league. And when you put on the tape, you see why. Do you think Phillips will play nickel outside boats? And you've got Okuda, and then you brought in safety with Jesse Bates? We'll see where Clark, maybe he's outside, maybe he's inside. But we believe he's a versatile player. He has a high football IQ. And so when you're really smart and you work hard, that gives you that versatility. You see just little things and that just his body control, the way he positions himself, the way he sees throws, no doubt. He's adoring fans. The way he sees turns himself into the receiver. Like, when the ball's in the air, he's not trying to deflect it. He's trying to catch and take away. I mean, six interceptions in college football. That's impressive. He's smart and you know you get into 4, 5, 6, 7th round. You better bring in smart players because they're not going to get as many reps as some of the other guys. You have to be able to play special teams and to be a backup or a rotational player. You better be smart and be able to learn everything without getting as many reps as the other guys get. What's happening on the stage, by the way? Can we take that shot right now? Yeah. Let me see what's happening. What's happening right now? Fourth pick in the 20-23 NFL draft. This guy's going to introduce the Wingate Planner. The Atlanta Falcons select. DeMarco Hellams. No. Defensive back. Alabama. 28-3. Good one. We've heard that before. Wow. This next pick, there's a good chance that program that, you know, Alabama program that your safety went to is probably a pretty smart pick. You don't usually get to play for Nick Saban. If you're playing the secondary for Nick Saban, you're better be smart, right? Yeah. If you're going to play in the secondary for Nick Saban, you better know how to do it. So 108 tackles. He actually led Alabama. We were talking about tackles. 108 tackles last season, which was the most on that team. So you're talking about smart. You're getting this guy in the seventh round. Yes. A prominent program. And so for him to play in the secondary for Nick Saban and to be one of the main communicators on the back end, so you know he's smart, high football IQ, you know he's versatile. And again, he's a tough violent player. He plays with anticipation and he's the type of guy that, yeah, he can take it away and he can play the ball, but he likes to hit people. This defense is fun to watch in general because of the way they play, the way they compete. And so bringing in somebody again from that secondary that had this type of production, this type of program, you know he can be versatile. You know he can do some different things and work different hats on defense. And you know he's going to be a tough, violent, special teams player as well. With the 225th pick and the 2023 NFL draft, the Atlanta Falcons select Jovon Gwynn, center, South Carolina. Jovon Gwynn, South Carolina, lead, right guard in college. 47 games is what I have. And you announced him as a center. So spending time with the players and us, again, our scouting staff and our coaching staff really looking at the players and having a clear vision. The thing about him, just like we talked about the corner, his height is an exception. Yet there have been a lot of good starting centers in the NFL in that height range where he is. And when you are an exception in one area, you have to have some intangible something that's going to compensate to get you over the hump. With this guy, I mean he's tough, smart. He was a high school wrestler and you see that in the way he plays. He was one of the higher centers in reps at the combine. He was one of the faster centers in the 40. He's a worker. And so he's going to come in and out, work people. And you see in the pass protection strong hands, stout anchor. Again, the way he's built his height and his exception, he's below average height. But he's a strong, well built man. Excellent technician. And again, he's a finisher. We have a great offensive line coach and we have a great room in the offensive line. So you can't bring a lazy dude in that room. He's just not going to fit in and they'll just spit him out. So you have to bring those types of players. My last question for you, what kind of wine did you have after night three? It's Saturday night. You are exhausted. You had a great draft. We're celebrating. What are we drinking? It was such a, you're zapped after that. And my son, he was supposed to have like a baseball game the next day and all this stuff. And he said, I can't let dad down. I need to be in the draft. So he told my wife not to pick him up. And he just stayed. But there's a funny picture of him because about pick 20, he was knocked out sleeping in the draft room. But he rallied the next day. And he's ready to roll. I was going to say, did he play his baseball? So he did. And he missed one of his games. And then he came for day two. And then day three, he said, hey, I trust you guys. And so he went to his baseball game. But he loved Clark. And so he made sure I knew that he approved that pick once we took the fourth round. I love it. Awesome. Thank you so much. I love that story. Thank you.