Xavier
Watts.
Xavier
Watts.
Notre Dame· 6'0"· 204 lb
"A decorated deep-zone safety whose elite ball production and diagnostic skills overcome modest athletic testing and a lean frame that limits his fit against the run."Pre-draft read
Watts is a converted wide receiver turned deep-zone safety who spent two years as Notre Dame's quarterback of the back end, alternating between single-high, split-field halves and box rover looks. His calling card is processing: he diagnoses concepts pre-snap, plays the quarterback's eyes from depth and triggers on the throw before the ball leaves the hand.
The secondary trait is ball skills — 13 interceptions in his final two seasons, several off pure anticipation. Against the run he fills alleys with a fast trigger and tackles under control in space. Athletically he is good, not rare, and the vertical trail rep is his ceiling limiter. The signature is turning average speed into early arrivals.
Split-safety zone defense (Quarters/Cover 2/Cover 6) with single-high change-ups, built on pattern-match rules and post-snap rotation
Year 1: immediate three-down starter as the deep half or post safety in a two-high shell, communicating rotations. Ceiling: a defense's turnover engine and back-end quarterback, the free safety a coordinator builds disguise packages around.
A heavy man-coverage system that asks its safeties to travel with tight ends and slot receivers in Cover 1, or a scheme that plays him as a full-time strong safety in the box against 12 personnel.
The more pre-snap disguise and post-snap rotation a defense uses, the more his processing edge compounds.
Xavier Watts | Career Notre Dame Highlights (Two-Time All-American)
Full career reel showing the range, ball skills and downhill trigger that produced 13 interceptions.
NFL Draft Eval: Xavier Watts (All-22 Film Review)
All-22 breakdown of his pre-snap processing, deep-zone leverage and coverage limitations in man.
COMPLETE Safety || Notre Dame Safety Xavier Watts Highlights
Season cut-up focused on alley fills, tackling in space and playing the quarterback's eyes.
Watts is a football-intelligence safety whose value is built on anticipation, not testing numbers. He arrived at Notre Dame as a receiver, moved to defense out of necessity in 2021, and by 2023 was the most productive defensive back in college football. He plays with the eyes and route recognition of a converted pass catcher, which is exactly what makes him dangerous playing the ball from depth.
The production is not a fluke of one season. He won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy in 2023 with seven interceptions and repeated as a consensus All-American in 2024 with six more, 82 tackles and ten pass breakups, capped by a Sugar Bowl Defensive MVP performance in the playoff. The flags are honest: a 4.64 forty, tightness at the breakpoint in man coverage, and a frame around 203 pounds that does not project as a full-time box defender against heavier personnel.
Boards had him in the second-round range as a plug-and-play free safety with limited scheme flexibility, and the athletic testing pushed him down. Atlanta taking him at 96 was value on the instincts and the turnover history, betting that a defense willing to leave him deep would get starter production well above the pick's price.
- 01
Processing speed
reads route combinations and quarterback body language from depth, arriving on throws his timed speed says he should not reach.
- 02
Ball production
13 interceptions over his final two seasons, most of them anticipation plays rather than tips or coverage busts.
- 03
Range from the middle
comfortable as a true single-high defender, covering half the field with clean angles and no wasted steps.
- 04
Run trigger
quick to plant and drive downhill, fills the alley with intent and tackles reliably in open grass without diving at feet.
- 05
Versatility of alignment
logged real snaps at deep safety, split-field, box rover and slot, and never looked out of place in any of them.
- 01
Long speed
a 4.64 forty shows up on vertical trail reps where he has to run with a receiver stride for stride down the seam.
- 02
Man coverage at the breakpoint
hips tighten in press-man and off-man, giving separation on sharp comebacks and out-breaking routes.
- 03
Play strength
at roughly 203 pounds he can be moved by tight ends and pulling linemen when asked to play a true box role.
- 04
Recovery margin
because he plays on anticipation, guessing wrong leaves little athletic cushion to make up the ground he loses.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Notre Dame | 11 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Notre Dame | 13 | 36 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2023 | Notre Dame | 13 | 47 | 0.5 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | Notre Dame | 16 | 83 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 0 |
| Career | — | 53 | 181 | 1.5 | 13 | 14 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Deep-zone ball hawk who wins with eyes and anticipation rather than testing numbers.
Undersized instinct safety who became a turnover machine and defensive centerpiece.
Useful starter whose coverage limitations cap him as a scheme-dependent role player.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Atlanta plugged him in immediately and never took him out. Watts started all 17 games as a rookie in 2025, played nearly every defensive snap next to Jessie Bates III, and finished with 96 tackles, five interceptions, 11 pass breakups and a fumble recovery. He was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month for September after an opening stretch that made him the most productive rookie defensive back in the league, and he closed the year on the PFWA All-Rookie Team.
In hindsight the 4.64 forty was the market inefficiency of the third round. The traits that made him an All-American — pre-snap diagnosis, playing the throw instead of the receiver, tackling in space — travelled cleanly because Atlanta let him do exactly what Notre Dame did: play deep, read the quarterback and hunt the ball. He is still not a man-coverage answer and probably never will be. But the pairing with Bates gave Atlanta one of the league's better safety tandems for a third-round price, and this looks like one of the best value picks of the 2025 class.