Nation's Best Ball Hawk - Xavier Watts Season Preview | PFF CFB Show

all right our number five safety in college football is the reigning nersi Award winner which is given to the best defensive player in college football so you might hear that and say how on Earth is this guy number five in your rankings we'll get into some of his negatives a little bit later D but it is Xavier Watts out of Notre aame what made him the defensive player of the year in college football last year and you know what are some of the strengths of his game well the obvious one is that he led the country in interceptions with seven right um he he just he's a ball Hawk and and from a fre from a free safety spot like Notre Dame at every other position has guys who are really fundamentally sound they're great tacklers they're shut down Corners they do all those things Xavier watts is the one guy that forced turnovers right seven interceptions three pass breakups last year a force fumble to go with it against USC he's just he's like just one of those classic fine SE ball get ball free safeties right he can play single high he can play too high he's really aggressive in the r in the Run game maybe sometimes too aggressive but you can't question the attitude and the effort and the ball Hawkin skills that he brings to Notre Dame Secondary right and and if they're going to force turnovers instead of just being like a really good kind of grinder down defense it's because of Xavier Watts so he has a very very important role in this defense but that's what makes him so good is his athleticism his uh 98.6 PFF gas score obviously incredibly high and his ball skills right those are the two things he wants to find the football right he will do any anything he can to turn the ball over and make a gamechanging play for the defense absolutely Yeah you mentioned 98.6 uh last year 99.6 the year before so two straight years of being an elite elite Athlete on the football field anyone who doesn't know our gas score measures your speed agility change of Direction a lot of things on the football field so and then Compares them to other play voice track right there Compares them to other players at that position uh and Xavier Watts was like 99th percentile for safeties which is obviously a freak of an athlete um mentioned the inter ceptions man uh he didn't allow a single touchdown into his coverage either which I thought was pretty impressive in coverage uh 37.8 passer rating allowed last year which was eighth best by a power five safety so um yeah you mentioned the coverage ability the ability to make plays in the football he really won that USC and that USC they dominated USC in that game but a big reason for that was because Xavier wats man he was all over the field and causing Caleb Williams a lot of problems uh in that game which is why ultimately he won Defensive Player of the Year in C Ball was because just how many turnovers he caused for Notre Dames defense Doan now why is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year why is he number five at his own position when I'm sure some their D fans will say hey you might be the number five player in the country regardless of position but why are we a little bit lower on Xavier watt right now right so there's two things for me one PFF grades are not just all about your highlights right like obviously his 10 to 15 best plays are as good as anybody but it's about consistency and we grade every single play right so if you're wondering why the grades are a little bit lower that's why now the reasoning behind it it from a player standpoint is discipline discipline discipline he brings that 100 mph motor to everything everything he does he constantly wants to force a turnover and he constantly wants to make a huge play right it's kind of like the home run hitter in baseball that hits 210 right it's like he's just so overaggressive at times especially in the Run game for sure with some of his angles he's trying to lay big hits on people where then it gets away from him a little bit right even in coverage sometimes where you know if you're opting every single play in coverage to try to swat at the ball try to get the pass defense try to you know make the turnover sometimes you're going to get a bad angle sometimes you're going to get beat to the spot right and then that's when big plays happen so it's it's kind of that thing where you've got a guy that's a home run hitter right but he doesn't always make contact he's not going to hit 320 right in a football sense for a safety this is how this works is that on a play- to-play consistency basis he's not going to grade out as the best player in the country right we've had safeties in the NFL I think about Trayvon Diggs like this right where some people we they people have gotten on us where it's like well why why is he not like the best corner in football when he led the league in picks the one year and all this well down to down it's not the most consistent thing ever when you're constantly gambling sometimes you're going to lose and that's where Xavier Watts just the inconsistency comes in if he found a little more discipline playto playay and not you know going for the home run every single play the grades would be higher there's a role for him absolutely he's a great player it's just that he takes his he takes his chances and you win some and you lose some yeah exactly and I think even the PF grades will say he should be a lot lower on this list but we could we recognize like hey this guy is making a lot of plays in the football and we put him a little bit higher here I think it was a great breakdown Dawn honestly and I think um as a lifelong Gambler I can tell you that yeah you will be losing a lot if you uh if you gamble all the time so Xavier watch is a little bit like that on the football field at least in that respect um he's an elite athlete you mentioned before but sometimes got away from him man it seems like he's almost too athletic out there in run defense man he had a 62.5 run defense grade last year he missed 18% of his tackle attempts 18% almost one out of every five times he went for a tackle he missed it um that actually was in the eighth percen tile for safeties in 2023 so lot of work to do as a run Defender now I think the effort is there he's not like a Kalin bulock for example from USC bulock was uh a liability as a run Defender but because the the physicality just wasn't there in his game Watts has it it's just like you mention the discipline is just not theous I think the if he improves his technique as a tackler and plays a little bit more under control and run defense he could really take his game to the next level because I do think in coverage yeah there are plays where he misses because he's too aggressive but also like he makes enough plays in coverage he he was good enough all around in coverage and he's pretty good in coverage already but I think the the biggest thing for me was the run defense was kind of a mess for him last year and why ultimately uh he's a little bit lower for both of us on this list but still the bring Bronco nersi Award winner Xavier W still deserves to be a top five safety in the country for how many plays mix on the football let us know in the comments below what you think about his game whether not we're too low on him uh let us know in the comments below and subscribe to the channel for more videos coming out uh around the 2024 college football season [Music]