2025 NFL Draft: Notre Dame Safety Xavier Watts Scouting Report
Watts is one of the draft's best defensive playmakers.
Welcome to scouting report season. These reports will be my main form of content for a bit, but I’m hoping to ramp back up with other content soon.
The reports will include trait-by-trait breakdowns, a summary of the player’s skill set, and a rough round grade at the bottom.
Xavier Watts Scouting Report
Range
Watts is one of the few safeties in this class with the speed and instincts to play as a single-high defender at the NFL level for a majority of his snaps. He’s capable of flipping his hips and getting sideline to sideline to cap off routes or make a play on the ball. He does an excellent job reading the QB’s eyes and getting a head start on the intended target.
Versatility
Although Watts plays a lot of reps in deep zones, he’s equipped to line up all over the place. He did a nice job covering backs and tight ends in man coverage, and he’s a good enough tackler to defend the run in the box. He’s also a useful robber and underneath zone player in those scenarios, thanks to his coverage instincts and ball skills.
Man Coverage
Watts is a functional man coverage option, but I don’t think he should get too many reps against receivers with legitimate speed and twitch. He’s better suited to deal with tight ends and backs, where his COD skills and long speed won’t be challenged as much.
Zone Coverage
It’s hard to poke holes in anything Watts does in zone coverage. His ability to cap routes in deeper alignments is impressive, and he’s more than capable of adapting on the fly to different route concepts. In shallow zones, he’s a useful robber player because of his playmaking mentality. Watts is where he’s supposed to be at all times, and he’s got the speed to make use of that by creating turnovers.
Football IQ
For a converted receiver who got a late start at safety, Watts shows impressive football IQ. He’s a clear communicator on the defense, and the way he attacks route concepts from deep zones points to a player who understands what offenses are trying to do at a high level.
Tackling
Watts can be a little out of control when arriving at contact, causing him to launch himself at the feet of a ball carrier. Overall, he’s a pretty good tackler who has good strength to finish off all types of ball carriers. He just needs to be a little more controlled when coming from depth.
Run Support
I wouldn’t identify this as an overwhelming strength of Watts’ game, but he’s more than good enough to check the box. As mentioned above, he’s a mostly solid tackler with good hit power and overall strength. He’s more than willing to run the alley and disengage from blocks if he gets locked up. He could take some better angles from depth sometimes, but overall, he’s a more positive presence than anything else.
Ball Skills
Watts should be in the running for the best ball skills in the class. It’s hard to imagine anyone beating out Travis Hunter for that award, but Watts is great in his own right. In the past two seasons, he’s recorded 15 PBUs and 12 INTs. He’s not a right-place-right-time merchant, either. Watts creates turnovers with his ability to make difficult catches, his speed to close down windows, and his IQ to properly position himself and bait QBs into bad throws.
COD skills
Like most safeties, Watts is perfectly fine when pivoting one direction and firing. He can flip his hips to get vertical without issue, and he’s plenty fine flipping them to come downhill. When he’s forced to make multiple pivots consecutively, limitations in his game start to show up.
Physicality
Watts is not a passive player despite mostly playing in deep zones. He’s physical in coverage and more than willing to come up and hit in the box. He’s not an “enforcer” per se, but that’s something I feel is overly required these days. He’s not afraid of contact and will occasionally dole out good hits.
Final Word on Watts
Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts projects as a Day 1 starting free safety at the NFL level, with the ball skills and coverage instincts to become one of the league’s best deep-zone defenders.
Watts is a former receiver, and it shows in the way he plays on the back end. He’s got the ball skills to make difficult catches (12 INTs and 15 PBUs in two seasons) and an understanding of what offenses are trying to do. He baits quarterbacks into bad throws and uses his speed and range to close down the window and make a play on the ball.
Although he’s primarily used in deeper zones, Watts is a useful shallow zone player. His instincts translate there, and he’s got the playmaking mentality you’d want in someone playing a robber role in the NFL. This gives him the versatility to operate as a single-high, two-high, and low-hole defender if needed.
Watts’ man coverage isn’t perfect, but I think he’s good enough to handle backs in the flat or on vertical concepts like wheel routes. His work against tight ends was also solid, as he showed enough physicality to match them over the middle. Asking him to cover speed slots is flirting with trouble, though.
His run defense is also sufficient. He’s mostly a good tackler but would benefit from coming to balance at contact more often and taking better angles from depth. Still, he’s a physical player who explodes downhill with speed to make plays near the line, and he’s not bad at dealing with contact. That alone makes him better than a lot of free safeties.
Overall, Watts provides one of the best coverage profiles at the safety position in the 2025 NFL Draft. His versatility to play in any zone alignment, operate in single-high, and be a competent run defender would give any defense a bevy of options to build off of. The question is whether or not the NFL will view his single-high work as worthy of a premium selection in a league increasingly slanting toward more two-high looks.
Round Grade: High 2nd
Pro Comp: Eddie Jackson
Good assessment of a young player