Rookie Pushing for Starting Role in Falcons' Secondary

After a solid performance last Friday, Watts nearly had the chance to record his first camp interception, but his All-Pro teammate swooped in to take away the tipped pass. 

“I think I had a little vet moment,” Jessie Bates joked after practice on Tuesday. 

But in all seriousness, the veteran safety has seen the growth from the rookie who came up emulating his play. 

“I think he's starting to get comfortable,” Bates said about how Watts has progressed through camp. “He's starting to actually talk to us, you know, in the meeting rooms and stuff. He's just starting to understand the defense. I think things are starting to slow down for him. Sometimes, as a rookie, you just kind of second-guess yourself, like, ‘Do I got it? Do I got it?’ And I think he's really starting to understand what we're trying to do here.”

Watts, who said after being drafted in April that Bates is someone he emulates in his game, has learned firsthand what it means to play like a pro from his role model. 

“[Bates has] been awesome,” Watts said. “Jessie specifically is a veteran guy, an All-Pro, and the best safety in the NFL. It’s just awesome being around him every day, seeing how he works, seeing how he learns, and just picking up on certain things that he does.”  

The two-time consensus first-team All-American from Notre Dame is continuing to battle it out with veterans Jordan Fuller and DeMarcco Hellams for the spot beside Bates in the secondary. With no clear frontrunner, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has still come away with tons of confidence in his secondary after what he’s seen thus far. 

“It’s not, ‘I hope one of these guys emerges.’ It’s like, ‘we’re going to be in a good spot regardless of who wins,’” he said. “These competitions are making every guy better. You know, it's just they're elevating on a daily basis, and it's amazing what competition does to people.” 

The Falcons’ defensive coordinator says that Watts has been doing an “excellent job” throughout camp, saying he has an “uncommon maturity” for a rookie. That consistency, he says, gives him a tremendous opportunity to be a difference-maker right out of the gate as a rookie. 

“You don’t see the swings,” Ulbrich said. “You don’t see the good day [then] the bad day, you don’t see the good move [then] the bad move.”  

Whether Watts opens Week 1 next to Bates or has to continue waiting for his turn, the Falcons believe they’ve found a safety who already carries himself like a veteran. If his play continues catching up to his poise, it might not be long before the rookie is making plays that no one, not even the player he modeled his game after, can snatch away.

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