The Falcons may have fallen short of the playoffs last season, but they hit big with Xavier Watts.
Atlanta used the third-round pick it picked up in the James Pearce Jr. trade to climb five spots and land the Notre Dame safety, and that move quickly paid off. Watts didn’t just crack the lineup as a rookie. He won the starting job in training camp and ended up leading all rookies with five interceptions, a total that tied for second-most in the NFL.
That kind of debut is usually enough to set a high ceiling, but NFL.com’s Nick Shook thinks Watts can still climb higher in 2026. In a feature on 10 players who “should improve” next season, Shook pointed to the 24-year-old as a candidate to take another step.
“Watts had an excellent rookie season, racking up five interceptions and 11 passes defended on his way to finishing fourth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting,” wrote Shook. “That's a high bar to exceed, but it's also indicative of how much faith I have in Watts, a player I could not believe was still available in the latter portion of the 2025 NFL Draft's third round.”
Shook didn’t stop there. He called Watts “an animal” and tied that belief to the fit in Jeff Ulbrich’s defense.
“Watts is an animal and the perfect fit for Jeff Ulbrich's defense, which he demonstrated as a rookie. Now, he's poised to build upon that sparkling debut. Circle back to this nugget when he posts even better numbers in Year 2.”
If Watts does top his rookie production, Atlanta’s defense could be in excellent shape. And with Bates alongside him in the secondary, quarterbacks won’t have many easy places to go in 2026.
In Other News...
Falcons Rookie James Pearce Jr. Now Faces A Troubling New Layer
A troubling new layer has emerged for James Pearce Jr., the Falcons rookie whose off-field situation has already drawn plenty of attention. Newly released body camera video has added more context to the incident, showing the traffic stop, Pearce getting back into the car and the chase that followed in Doral, Florida, after he fled officers.
The case stems from a domestic dispute involving his ex-girlfriend, Rickea Jackson, and it carries multiple felony and misdemeanor charges. For Atlanta, the concern now goes beyond the legal headlines and into the uncertainty around a young player trying to settle into the NFL while his situation remains unresolved. [Read more 🡒]
Falcons Camp Has An Undrafted Quarterback Worth Watching Closely
With OTAs in the rearview mirror and training camp set to open later this month, the Falcons are turning the page toward the real competition phase of the summer. Veterans are due in on July 28, rookies two days earlier, and among the 13 undrafted free agents Atlanta brought in, one name stands out as worth following closely: quarterback Jack Strand out of MSU-Moorhead. For a roster still sorting out depth behind the starter, any young passer who can make an early impression is going to get attention.
Strand arrives with the kind of backstory that tends to earn a longer look once camp pads go on. He put together a standout college run at the Division II level and now gets a shot to translate that production into an NFL opportunity, with his arm talent and fit in a pro system likely to be part of the evaluation. The challenge for Atlanta is straightforward enough: sort through the undrafted group, find which players can survive the jump in speed, and see whether Strand can stay in the conversation once the competition really starts. [Read more 🡒]
Falcons Fans Have Every Reason To Enjoy Tampa Bays New Risk
The Falcons offensive overhaul this offseason left no shortage of fingerprints, and Zac Robinsons one-year run was among the biggest. Hired in 2024 to run Atlantas offense, Robinson never found the kind of adaptability the job demanded, and his struggles helped set off the broader coaching-staff shakeup that followed. For a fan base still sorting through what went wrong, seeing Robinson land quickly in Tampa Bay is the sort of twist that invites a second look.
There is at least some risk in the Buccaneers betting on him, even if theyre doing so from a different setting with different personnel. Atlantas offense never consistently matched the talent around it, and Michael Penix Jr. was deployed almost exclusively from shotgun and pistol before now beginning to work under center, a reminder of how much the system itself had to evolve. Falcons fans do not need to root against the move to understand the appeal of watching how it plays out, because if Robinsons next stop goes sideways too, the comparison back to Atlanta will be hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]