Xavier Watts is every Defensive Coordinator’s dream on the back end of a defense. His average size and speed kept him out of Round 1, but his football IQ, instincts, and ball skills make him a great value for whatever team drafts him in Round 2. Watts was an All-American Safety each of the past two seasons at Notre Dame, and his 13 interceptions were the most in the country over that span. In 2023, he won the Bronco Nagurski award given to the best defensive player in college football. He was a team captain his final year for the Irish. The elite ball skills can be traced back to his time in high school, where Watts played both ways as a WR and FS. In 3 years of varsity football, he tallied 2,978 receiving yards and 36 TDs on offense and 136 tackles and 9 interceptions on defense. He was a 4-star WR recruit and top 400 player in his high school class. Schools recruited him at both. His high school coach Paul Limongi said “He might be the best safety that I’ve seen in high school football in my 25 years coaching. He has it all. He has a great nose for the ball, he’s a great hitter, he has a knack to be in the right place at the right time. To call him an excellent receiver is an injustice. He’s just a great football player. He could be great if he played running back, if he played outside linebacker.” Notre Dame, who had serious needs at both spots in 2020, was happy to let him choose. Watts said he preferred WR, so the Irish staff had him on offense his first season in South Bend. In 2021, Watts was moved to a Rover Linebacker position. He saw action in 11 games that season playing both LB and some reserve Safety later in the year when Kyle Hamilton was injured. In fall camp of 2022, he practiced at both WR and FS, but new HC Marcus Freeman decided he’d be a full time Safety in new DC Al Golden’s defense. Watts was a reserve Safety but started playing more and more snaps as the year went on and the Irish deployed more 3 safety looks. In 2023, he finally earned a full-time starting spot at Safety and has been one of the best players in the country since. 

The intelligence and instincts jump off the screen when watching Watts. DC Al Golden asked a lot of him, and he was able to do everything for the Irish. Golden played the highest amount of Cover 1 man coverage in the country. Many times Watts was the deep safety, tasked with playing “Center Field” and using his instincts and range to cover from sideline to sideline. Watts also has the versatility to play man coverage. While he does not have the change of direction ability of a lot of CBs, his anticipation, understanding of leverage, and ability to diagnose route concepts on the fly allowed him to be good in man coverage, particularly against TEs and slot WRs. He also excels against the run, showing a knack for quickly triggering and flying downhill to make a tackle. He does not shy away from contact, his year at LB did him well. He has a knack for getting his hands on the ball, and he usually comes down with it when he does, as evidenced by the 13 interceptions the last two years. Golden also liked to blitz and had no problem using any of the back 7 players as a blitzer. Watts had 14 blitzes in 2024 and got pressure on 7 of them, a very high 50% pressure rate, just another way that he can impact a defense. Watts showed great communication pre-snap as the leader in a young secondary. They were an assignment-sound unit that you’d rarely ever see have a coverage breakdown. Watts’ 89.7 PFF Defense Grade ranked 4^th in the country among Safeties and his 89.5 Coverage Grade ranked 5^th in the nation.

Watts is equally impressive off the field. His dad Jeff was the victim of a drive-by shooting when Xavier was 18 months old and is paralyzed from the waist down. Jeff says he hung around with bad groups of people growing up and has preached to Xavier his entire life not to go down the path he did. Jeff still sends him clips and stories on social media of athletes who have ruined their careers due to off-field problems (I’m sure he knows plenty about Jermaine Burton!). Watts had a 4.0 GPA in high school, was a peer tutor, and went to study halls every day (not because he needed the help, but because he thought it’d be a good influence on his teammates to see him attending). Watts graduated from Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and a master’s in Business Administration. 

Success at the Safety has the lowest correlation with Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of any position. Watts’ Pro Day times are not going to impress anyone, and I don’t care. Much like All-Pro Safeties Kyle Hamilton and Xavier McKinney, who ran in the high 4.5s and low 4.6s, Watts plays much faster on the field than he runs in his underwear. Now-Bengals DC Al Golden trusted Watts to do everything on the field for his defense over the last two years. The consistent tape and production will translate into an immediate impact player in the NFL. Geno Stone struggled mightily both in coverage and in the run game last season and does not look to be a fit for the defense Golden wants to run. The Free Safety position has been a consistent pain point since letting Bates walk in free agency, get Golden his linchpin in the secondary that lets him run the type of defense he wants. I have Xavier Watts ranked as a Top 30 player in this class, and I would love to see him reunited in Cincinnati with Al Golden.