Xavier Watts saw the speculation that he would make a logical draft pick for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Folks started to speculate that two-time All-America safety from Notre Dame could end up playing for Al Golden, who the Bengals hired as defensive coordinator this offseason after he spent the past three seasons at Notre Dame in the same role.
“Yeah, I mean I've definitely seen some of the stuff,” Watts said Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “I try to stay away from it, but it's hard when I'm always on my phone for the most part, and I'm getting tags and mentions in certain stuff.
“I don't know how that stuff works or what's going to happen, but at end of the day I'm going to just do what I need to do, and then we'll see what happens in the future.”
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Watts blossomed as a safety after making his first career starts in the final four games of the 2022 season, which was Watts’ first as a full-time safety and Golden’s first at Notre Dame. Watts became a unanimous All-American by the end of the 2023 season and a consensus All-American again in 2024.
An illustrious Notre Dame career finally came to an end with ND’s 34-23 loss to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Thirty-six days later, Watts arrived in Indianapolis for orientation and his first team interviews at the NFL Combine.
Because of the length of Notre Dame’s season, Watts opted to skip the Senior Bowl on Feb. 1. He also chose to skip the testing and workout portions of the NFL Combine to allow himself more time to specifically prepare for what he’ll do at Notre Dame’s Pro Day in late March.
“At the end of the day, it's about really just taking care of your body, making sure your body's good to go,” Watts said. “I didn't want to pressure myself to go out there and do something that I didn't feel like I wanted to do because of my body, the way it had a really long season.
“So, I didn't want to go out there and push anything to limits that it didn't need to go through. But obviously that confidence, I'm confident in my abilities that I'll be fine without some of those things and confident that I'll crush the interviews.”
Watts proved to be incredibly durable his last two seasons at Notre Dame. He started and played in all 29 games and led the Irish in defensive snaps in each season. His 970 defensive snaps last season were second in the FBS behind only Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron’s 971, according to Pro Football Focus.
“I feel like I do a really good job of taking care of my body,” Watts said. “I played all 16 games, played pretty much every snap, so I just know what I need to do with my body to make sure I'm right, eat right, the right nutrition, right recovery to make sure I'm doing good.”
The testing standards for this year’s safety class were set by those who did participate at Lucas Oil Stadium last week. Fifteen safeties completed the 40-yard dash in a range of 4.37-4.59 seconds with a median time of 4.49. Fifteen also did the vertical leap with a range of 30.5-43 inches with a median of 36. Thirteen safeties performed the broad jump with a range of 9 feet, 9 inches and 11 feet, 6 inches with a median of 10-4.
The word on the 6-foot, 204-pound Watts is that he may be a more productive football player than an athletic tester, but he’ll get a chance to show what he can do when NFL personnel meet up in South Bend later this month.
“I know the 40’s hyped up and vert and all that stuff,” Watts said. “So, I'm gonna go out there and give my best effort, get my best foot forward and whatever I go out there and do, what I do is going to be representation of my hard work and who I am as a player.”
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One of the biggest questions teams have had for Watts in the interview process has been his tackling. Watts totaled 188 tackles in his career, but he was a bit shaky in his first full season as a starter in 2023. Pro Football Focus graded Watts as missing 18.8% of his tackle attempts. He lowered that down to 12.6% in 2024, which ranked 38th among FBS safeties with at least 700 defensive snaps.
“Obviously, I'm an aggressive player, so sometimes I take aggressive angles,” Watts said. “So, they kind of have a question, sometimes, on what I do when it comes to tackling.”
Watts’ ability to track the football in the air shouldn’t be a big question. The former wide receiver who transitioned to defense during his sophomore season in 2021 intercepted 13 passes and broke up 14 others in the last two seasons.
Watts credited the mindset Golden instilled in the defense for being aggressive in making plays to get the ball.
“I was fortunate enough to play in a defense where we wanted to get the ball, we were out there playing free and we were just hungry,” Watts said. “So, I was able to capitalize on the system I was in. Credit to all my teammates. They did what they needed to do, so I was able to make some plays.”
Watts pointed to an interception he made against Virginia as one that coaches often single out when reviewing his film. He read the route that wide receiver Malachi Fields, who has committed to transfer to Notre Dame for the 2025 season, wanted to run and beat him to the pass from quarterback Anthony Colandrea.
“It was third down,” Watts recalled. “I knew the guy was going to be running the dig, and I have really good instincts I trust. When I feel something, I'm just going to do it. So, I trusted that he's running the dig. I broke on the dig, and he ran the dig, and I got a pick.”
Watts, who has been projected as a top five safety in this year’s draft, weighed a jump to the NFL after the 2023 season, but he decided to stay at Notre Dame to make a run at a national championship. The Irish came up one win short, but Watts accomplished a lot in becoming a captain and proving his playmaking in 2023 wasn’t a fluke.
Whoever takes Watts in the NFL Draft will benefit from what he learned in his final season with the Irish. It doesn’t have to be Golden.
“Just coming into this season, especially being a captain, it really forced me to be out there and be a true leader, especially as one of the veteran guys back there,” Watts said. “It really prepared me for this next level, because at the next level you gotta talk, you gotta be a communicator, you gotta be very mature. So, this season I'm glad I came back and was able to do that.”
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