How will ‘fire and ice' rookies Xavier Watts, Billy Bowman Jr. fit in Falcons' secondary?

New York Times

20-05-2025

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The first day Atlanta Falcons rookie defensive backs Xavier Watts and Billy Bowman Jr. got on the practice field, assistant head coach for defense Jerry Gray was already workshopping nicknames.
'I'm probably going to nickname them 'fire and ice,'' said Gray, who oversees Atlanta's secondary. 'When you talk to them, you'll see.'
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Bowman, a fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma, is the fire. He isn't shy about what he thinks he can accomplish in his first NFL season.
'My expectations are always (to start) right away,' he said. 'I'm a guy that's an alpha, and I'm sure that the other guys here are alphas, too. We're going to come in, compete, make each other better. If I don't start, I'll do whatever I need to do to make the team better. I'm going to always put myself in position to be in that conversation.'
Watts, a third-round pick out of Notre Dame, is the ice. He's the verbally bland to Bowman's bombast, and his thoughts about how he'll fit in are going to stay his own, it seems.
'I am not really expecting anything,' he said. 'I'm just trusting my teammates and coaches, and we'll see what happens.'
The personality difference isn't consequential to the Falcons, though, because Bowman and Watts are remarkably similar players: offensive standouts in high school who helped their teams to undefeated state championship seasons with a track record of impressive interception numbers and went on to have decorated careers at major universities.
Both players were draft values for the Falcons, too, according to The Athletic's Dane Brugler, who had Watts projected as a second-round pick and Bowman as a third-round pick. The 6-foot, 204-pound Watts was Brugler's third-ranked safety, and the 5-10, 192-pound Bowman was his fifth-ranked safety.
Oklahoma S Billy Bowman, Jr. (#2).
A massive 4th down tackle on Luther Burden III here, showing off some of his best traits: play speed, vision, instincts and physicality.
Really good player. pic.twitter.com/fysFGYWLgJ
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 13, 2024
Watts led the FBS with 13 interceptions in the past two seasons, which he says was 'not by coincidence.'
'I have a really good feeling for the game of football, and I'm able to get the ball,' he said.
He will have a chance to earn a starting spot at safety alongside Jessie Bates III, whom Watts says he has long modeled his game after.
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'I just think we're very similar,' Watts said. 'We're similar in size. He gets the ball. He's a playmaker. He can tackle well. So, I feel like we're very similar in all aspects of the game of football.'
The Falcons would have considered taking Watts with the No. 46 pick in the second round if they had not traded that pick away, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said. In addition to Bates, Atlanta already had free-agent signee Jordan Fuller, DeMarcco Hellams and Benny Sapp II at safety.
'It's going to be a very competitive safety room,' coach Raheem Morris said. 'Having Watts come here and compete with those guys, get a chance to get on the field and really be productive for us is something that we look forward to doing this spring.'
The Falcons traded a 2026 fifth-round pick to move from No. 101 to No. 96 to take Watts because they were concerned he was going to be selected by another team, specifically the Las Vegas Raiders, who picked at No. 98, Ulbrich said.
'When we have that much conviction on a player and when we have intel about where a player can go … we know we need to get up to a certain spot, and if a player is that good, then we're going to be aggressive and go up and get them,' general manager Terry Fontenot said after Watts was selected. 'This guy's a stud. So, we're very excited. We were aggressive when we went up and got him and very excited about that. I mean, outstanding character, serious worker, competitor, high-end instincts, former receiver, ball hawk.'
Fontenot used many of the same words to describe Bowman a day later.
'If you don't enjoy watching him play, then you just don't like football,' Fontenot said. 'He's got ball awareness and is just an unreal competitor. Next-level competitor. So, very, very excited about him and what he brings to our team and our defense.'
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Bowman, who had 11 interceptions in his final three years with the Sooners, is being cross-trained at multiple positions in the secondary, but Atlanta's coaches ultimately envision him as a nickelback.
'He's a guy who has shown elite coverage skills,' said Mike Rutenberg, the Falcons' defensive pass game coordinator. 'He can match on a slot. He has really good short-area quickness. It takes some DNA, too, and he's built from the right stuff.'
Rutenberg attended a private workout with Bowman in Norman, Okla.
'It didn't take me five minutes to realize, 'This guy loves football,'' the coach said. 'I was getting ready to head to dinner. He wanted to keep grinding on tape. Then, when we went to dinner, he wanted to keep talking about football.'
Bowman, who said he had a feeling after that workout that Atlanta was targeting him, had six interceptions in his junior season and returned three of them for touchdowns. He had 251 yards' worth of interception returns throughout his college career, which he attributes to his high school career at running back and wide receiver.
'I feel like the traits of knowing and feeling routes, I can kind of see one guy do something, and I know what else is coming after that,' he said. 'I also pick up on tendencies really quickly on the offensive side of the ball, just because I've played it all the time. So, whether that's motions or a certain route and things like that, I feel like it helps me a lot, knowing and understanding the other side of the ball.'
Bowman hopes to improve the consistency of his tackling, but the impact of his tackling is one of the things that caught the eye of the Falcons' personnel department.
'He's kind of got a cobra strike in a short space,' assistant general manager Kyle Smith said. 'He's got the skill set to play both safety and nickel. Why we like him at nickel is the condensed spaces, the twitch, the explosion, his aggressive demeanor.'
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Watts and Bowman could be starting by the end of the 2025 season, Smith said.
'We're not just adding bodies,' Fontenot said. 'We know the versatility that we have there at the safety position, the nickel position. These are all needs for us, and it worked out that we were able to get impact players in those spots. It doesn't always work out like that. Very excited about that.'
(Photo of Xavier Watts: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)