Rare trait behind Falcons’ elite safety duo: ‘Never had it in my career’

FLOWERY BRANCH — Xavier Watts spins a football in his right hand and glues his eyes on the tablet resting in the hands of Jessie Bates III. Together, the Falcons’ safeties swipe through practice film, stopping and watching each play.

They’re not yet on the field together. Watts didn’t practice during OTAs and minicamp dbecause of an undisclosed injury. But this is their time to talk — in the summer breeze, with no pads or live contact — so they don’t have to talk when they’re analyzing offensive splits and alignments in live time this fall.

Watts and Bates are close. So close, actually, that they’ve found perhaps the most sacred level of communication.

“They have this thing where they’re just talking without talking,” said linebacker Divine Deablo, who called Watts and Bates the best safety duo in the NFL. “They know what they’re both thinking.”

Falcons secondary coach Justin Hood, who played collegiately and has been in the coaching business for some 15 years, said Watts and Bates are in rarified air with their ability to find alignment through nonverbal means.

“I’ve never had it in my career,” Hood told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

So, how do they do it?

Film sessions like their mid-May practice review certainly help. So, too, does a deepened understanding of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s system.

Much of playing safety, Hood said, is a free-flowing ability to make plays and take chances within the defensive scheme, and the Falcons’ safeties have an “unbelievable” sense of when to pounce.

There’s a simple answer here, too — the Falcons have two uniquely intelligent football masterminds manning the back line of their defense.

“I think the word there is the instincts,” Falcons passing game coordinator Patrick Toney told the AJC. “The football instincts of those two guys are incredible. They break on things and see the quarterback in a way that a lot of people can’t.”

Watts and Bates were the only safety duo in the NFL with 95-plus tackles and three-plus interceptions each last season. Watts, a third-round pick from Notre Dame, finished fourth in NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Bates earned second-team All-Pro honors for the third time in eight seasons.

Productive, decorated and instinctive, the Falcons boast a formidable tandem.

“It’s as good as I’ve ever been around,” Ulbrich said.

Safeties are responsible for commuting signals out to the cornerbacks and down to the linebackers, which coach Kevin Stefanski dubbed the nerve center of the defense. Getting everybody on the same page is a requisite aspect of successful defenses, but the nuanced level of chemistry between the Falcons’ safeties opens creative pathways for Ulbrich.

The proficiency of their nonverbal communication is “extremely important,” Stefanski said, because it adds to the versatility of both players. Watts and Bates are intelligent and can feed off each other, which makes them interchangeable and capable of wearing a vast array of hats.

“When you have that, then you can push the envelope a little bit in terms of scheme and asking to do a little bit more,” Stefanski said. “We may ask this safety to drop down to the box and then this one to go to the post. But if we get this look, we’re going to change it or you’re both going to be back.

“There’s just no end to what you can do when it comes to X’s and O’s, but you have to have the players that are capable of doing all that. We have that with our safeties.”

The Falcons expect Watts and Bates not only to match their impact from last season, when they combined for 194 tackles and eight interceptions, but to find a new level. Watts has his rookie year in the rearview mirror. Both have a further understanding of Ulbrich’s system.

Now, when they enter meeting rooms, they come with suggestions. “Hey, coach, we played it this way last year,” they’ll note. “I was looking at this.” Those moments make Hood’s job more enjoyable, and they make the Falcons defense better.

“The defense is starting to evolve,” Hood said, “and it’s always better when you can put it in the players’ hands and they start to make the plays.”

Bates, 29, is entering the final season of a four-year contract signed in 2023. Watts, 24, is set to begin his second professional campaign. They’re in different stages of their lives and careers, but they’ve found commonality in their view on football, offenses and quarterbacks.

The Falcons think both are only getting better, too.

Watts, who Ulbrich said is “going to be a star,” is well-positioned to make the expected second-year jump.

“You bring the experience of that lap around the sun with you, and it allows you to be better in really all aspects of your professional life,” Stefanski said. “Meaning your routine you’ve established, the schematics you’ve done before. So, it brings some confidence into your play.

“Xavier, like all of our guys going into Year 2, you lean on the experiences of Year 1 to then take a leap, if you will.”

Bates is a solidified star, but Ulbrich said that won’t hinder him from improving in the margins.

“That’s a byproduct of a guy that’s just got amazing humility,” Ulbrich said. “Here’s a guy that’s been the face of the NFL as far as safety play is concerned for quite a while now that’s still so hungry to learn and grow and such humility to help others around him.”