The Atlanta Falcons selected Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Xavier Watts in the third round of the 2025 NFL draft. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot woke up to an abundance of text messages Friday morning. He joked only one — from defensive back-centric Falcons assistant coach Jerry Gray — influenced him on Day 2 of the 2025 NFL draft.
“Hey, congratulations on last night, great moves, very excited about what we’re adding to this team. Great night,” Gray texted. “But in the famous words of Janet Jackson, she famously sang, ‘What have you done for me lately?'”
Fontenot licked his lips and smiled. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, seated to Fontenot’s left, chuckled.
“We had to get somebody in the secondary today,” Fontenot said, laughing. “I had to get him a player.”
Fontenot is now in line to get a different text from Gray, as Atlanta traded up five spots with the Philadelphia Eagles late in the third round to select Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts at No. 96 overall.
Watts is a two-time unanimous first-team All-American who won the 2023 Bronco Nagurski Award given annually to the nation’s top defensive player.
The Falcons, who dealt their second-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night to move up 20 spots and draft edge rusher James Pearce Jr. with the 26th pick, waited nearly four hours after Day 2 officially began before trading up to get Watts.
Fontenot, an aggressor who’s now moved up in five of his six draft trades, said he had to be patient. Eventually, he ran out. Atlanta was too high on Watts to wait any longer.
“We all like him,” Fontenot said. “Start with the makeup — outstanding character, serious worker, competitor, high-end instincts, former receiver, ball hawk, more picks than anybody in college ball last two years.
“So, this guy’s a stud.”
The Falcons’ biggest pre-draft interaction with Watts came at the NFL Combine. Morris referred to Watts as sharp and high-character, and he heard high remarks from ESPN analyst and 13-year veteran Ryan Clark. Morris coached Clark with the now-Washington Commanders in 2014, and Clark’s son, Jordan, played extensively next to Watts at safety for Notre Dame in 2024.
Atlanta didn’t need another encounter to feel convicted about Watts, who reciprocated the feeling.
“I remember it was a really good meeting,” Watts said. “It was really cool, laid back. I think we all got along real well — chopped it up and talked some ball. It was a really good meeting.”
A team captain in 2024, Watts’s off-field resume and reputation is impressive. His on-field work may be even better.
And it started with a position change.
Watts, who made 61 receptions for 1,072 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior at Harry A. Burke High School in Omaha, Neb., arrived at Notre Dame as a receiver. He played in two games as a true freshman in 2020, taking a redshirt year.
But in 2021, due to a combination of attrition in the Irish’s secondary and his coaches wanting to get him on the field, Watts transitioned to defense — while continuing to work with the offense. He had experience at safety in high school, tallying 68 tackles and three interceptions as a senior, but there was an adjustment phase.
“It was difficult,” Watts said. “Switching that over in college level was a little bit different. It’s a lot higher attention to detail, and then you’re playing on a higher level, so just bouncing back and forth was a little bit difficult, but it all worked out in the end.”
By learning a variety of positions, from receiver on offense to linebacker, nickel corner and safety on defense, Watts said he knows what’s happening at most levels of the defense. The knowledge, he said, helped get him to the NFL after a decorated college career,
In 2023, Watts won the Nagurski Trophy given annually to the nation’s best defensive player. In 2024, he was named a unanimous All-American for the second-consecutive season. Watts had seven interceptions in 2023 and six interceptions in 2024 — his 13 total interceptions were the most in the FBS over the past two seasons.
Such ball production warrants an early circle on any scouting report. Morris said Watts’s instincts, ball skills, anticipation and receiver background lend to his innate ability to grab interceptions.
It reminds Morris of one of the Falcons’ best players: safety Jessie Bates III, a two-time second-team All-Pro who’s logged 10 interceptions since joining the team in 2023.
“He’s very instinctual like Jessie Bates,” Morris said. “He’s not afraid to take those shots and take those chances when necessary. Definitely can see the ball off light and come out the quarterback’s hands and do some of those things really well. So, we have all those things and that’s really about it.
“Ball skills and ball awareness is what you kind of talk about. This guy has both ball skills and ball awareness, and I think they’re at a really high level.”
The 6’0″, 204-pound Watts later said the 6’1″, 200-pound Bates is one of the players he models his game after, citing their similar builds, ball production and playmaking skills. Watts also praised Bates’s tackling, an area Watts feels the need to improve in his own game.
Fontenot, however, said Watts is fully capable of tackling and playing the run. It adds to his versatility, which Fontenot said is an important attribute in modern players.
“If you don’t have that versatility,” Fontenot said, “you can get exposed as a player.”
At Notre Dame’s pro day March 27, Watts registered a 4.56 40-yard dash, 35-inch vertical jump and 9-feet, 10-inch broad jump. His Relative Athletic Score (RAS) was a 6.99 — solid, but far from special.
Neither Fontenot nor Morris referenced Watts’s speed or athleticism when highlighting his traits Friday night. They kept getting back to his instincts, intangibles and ball skills.
And why not? The Falcons’ newest safety may start his hypothetical autobiography with the gaudy No. 13.
“I just think it’s who I am,” Watts said about the keys to getting his interceptions. “I’m just a ball player at the end of the day. I just go out there and I make plays.”
The Falcons had 13 hours between the moment they selected Watts to the start of Day 3 of the draft. There won’t be much time for Fontenot to check his phone and respond to texts.
So, one of his former players — linebacker Manti Te’o, who spent 2017-19 working under Fontenot with the New Orleans Saints — wasted little time.
Te’o’s scouting report was fit for the situation.
“Absolute stud,” Te’o texted.
