{"id":698424,"date":"2026-01-23T08:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698424\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:15:22","slug":"former-notre-dame-s-xavier-watts-up-for-award-with-atlanta-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698424\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Notre Dame S Xavier Watts up for award with Atlanta Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated Jan. 22, 2026, 3:09 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>Former Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts is up for AP Rookie Player of the Year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Notre Dame <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/notre-dame-fighting-irish\/3509\/\" data-autotag=\"848d37ce-c6ca-4602-acb8-8588a32d27e6\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Fighting Irish<\/a> alum Xavier Watts is a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/atlantafalcons\/status\/2014337881918341138?s=46&amp;t=NKxhO50JTypMTJmFyBYfiQ\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">finalist for Associated Press defensive rookie of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Watts, who is now with the NFL&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/atlanta-falcons\/323\" data-autotag=\"55e278ca-caf0-429b-8b4a-caeb78bff5ff\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, is one of two Falcons up for the award. James Pierce Jr. is the other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Watts, a safety, had five interceptions, 11 passes defended, one fumble recovery and 96 tackles &#8212; 59 solo &#8212; in his rookie season. He played in all 17 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In his Notre Dame career, Watts had 13 interceptions, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, one fumble recovery for a touchdown, 18 passes defended, 1.5 sacks, 8.5 tackles for loss and 188 tackles &#8212; 117 solo. He played in 55 games for the Fighting Irish. He was an All-American twice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Contact\/Follow us\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/IrishWireND\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@IrishWireND<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFightingIrishWire\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Follow Tim on X:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tehealey\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">@tehealey<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Jan. 22, 2026, 3:09 p.m. ET Former Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts is up for AP Rookie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[95878,223,254,2554,224,7,6,101840,96358,96609,96027,95888,101841,96088,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-698424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportscollegefighting-irishfootball","16":"tag-sstsnfootball","17":"tag-tagatlanta-falcons","18":"tag-tagcollege-sports","19":"tag-tagnfl","20":"tag-tagnotre-dame-fighting-irish","21":"tag-tagnotre-dame-fighting-irish-football","22":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115943422598916802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}