*****The Armani Watts Thread*****

[Dante84]

More to come...

Overview
Watts is a four-year starter for the Aggies, living up to the four-star recruiting status that accompanied him to A&M (he had nine interceptions as a high school senior to earn first-team Class 4A All-State notice in Forney, Texas). He led the team with three interceptions as a true freshman free safety in 2014, recording 59 tackles, two for loss, and nine pass breakups. Watts put up 126 tackles in 13 starts in his second year on the team, six of them going for losses, and he intercepted one pass while breaking up two others. Watts' junior campaign was cut short by a leg injury, but he still made 56 tackles, six for loss, two interceptions and two forced fumbles in nine starts. He earned third-team Associated Press All-American and second-team All-SEC honors in 2017, starting 12 games, posting 87 tackles, 10 for loss, four interceptions, five pass breakups, two fumble recoveries, two forced fumbles, and two blocked kicks.

Watts is a feast or famine player whose biggest faults are often self-inflicted and not due to a lack of talent or athletic ability. He's smooth and athletic and plays with the instincts and ball skills to flip the field on the next level. Watts' success as a professional will likely depend on work ethic and consistency as a tackler.

Strengths

• Very impressive athletic ability
• Loose and flexible through lower body with ability to swivel and swerve around the field
• Possesses above-average cover skills and soft hands
• Has feet and fluidity to line up in man
• Plays with instincts and timing
• Recognizes opportunities to undercut routes and make plays on the ball
• Has twitchy burst to break on throws
• Anticipates and triggers to make plays outside of his coverage area
• Good leaper with high-point ability
• Rangy
• Slick with ability to dart into crevices and find tackle angles near the line of scrimmage
• Has striking ability
• Able to blow up screen passes with downhill quickness

Weaknesses

• Lacking ideal size and build
• Has missed games on three different occasions
• Too many feast or famine plays
• Inconsistent and not always trust-worthy in run support
• Loses leverage in pursuit and overruns the play
• Picks and chooses when to square up and tackle with technique
• Will opt for ankle-diving too frequently
• Urgency in pursuit is lacking from the backside
• Inconsistency at finishing plays costs his defense at times
• Gets caught guessing on routes

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah it ain’t looking good

Lol such an overreaction.

It’s been one year and one day of camp with no 1st round pick. Relax.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Lol such an overreaction.

It’s been one year and one day of camp with no 1st round pick. Relax.

Ok sure

Still ain’t looking good

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

Ok sure

Still ain’t looking good

Yea even Nnadi sucks now because we had rumored interest in Daniels!

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Yea even Nnadi sucks now because we had rumored interest in Daniels!

It’s not ideal I’d say but who knows about the actual interest

I’m more concerned with the fact that Nnadi seems like the only player from last years draft that seems good

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

It’s not ideal I’d say but who knows about the actual interest

I’m more concerned with the fact that Nnadi seems like the only player from last years draft that seems good

You can pretend all you want that DOD and Speaks didn’t flash, one clearly playing out of position, but it did happen. Tremon Smith was one of the best KR’s in the league last year as well.

I’m not even saying it looks good right now. I’m just going to at least wait to see these guys in year 2 before I start to make judgments. We had no 1st round pick and we were picking late, if you weren’t prepared to be patient with this class, you were being completely unrealistic.

[Chiefs=Champions]

Kelce was considered a broke dick on here. Just sayin..

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

You can pretend all you want that DOD and Speaks didn’t flash, one clearly playing out of position, but it did happen. Tremon Smith was one of the best KR’s in the league last year as well.

I’m not even saying it looks good right now. I’m just going to at least wait to see these guys in year 2 before I start to make judgments. We had no 1st round pick and we’re picking late, if you weren’t prepared to be patient with this class you were being completely unrealistic.

They traded for a guy that is pretty much exactly what DoD is supposed to be etc and signed okafor who’s likely to play speaks spot

I understand wanting depth but that doesn’t exactly scream confidence in those guys

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

They traded for a guy that is pretty much exactly what DoD is supposed to be etc and signed okafor who’s likely to play speaks spot

I understand wanting depth but that doesn’t exactly scream confidence in those guys

Or it could just be the fact that they’re hedging their bets and hoping that we can maybe even have depth at those spots. Neither of those two guys were expensive or required valuable resources. There’s also the fact that we’re in win now mode and can’t just rely on the young guys to develop.

We also have no idea how they’re going to use these guys yet. It’s a new defense and we’ve had 2 days of camp. Speaks is clearly going to play inside a lot more than we thought. There’s a chance that DOD and Lee are both our LB’s in subs.

Stop rushing to judgment and let these things play out. It makes you look dumb.

[O.city]

Maybe they’re hedging bets but that’s just another way of saying we don’t fully believe in the guys we drafted

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. No reason to keep rolling with it once you have more info ie sunk cost fallacy

But even if you’re gonna kick speaks inside more, who you gonna take off the field ? You’re gonna want Jones out there, nnadi has shown he belongs and you just drafted Saunders and traded for Ogbah.

It just doesn’t seem like their moves show that they have much faith in speaks. Maybe he just needs more development time but with him being a 2nd rounder you don’t have a lot of time to see before you get into contract stuff with it only being 4 years etc to get value

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

Maybe they’re hedging bets but that’s just another way of saying we don’t fully believe in the guys we drafted

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. No reason to keep rolling with it once you have more info ie sunk cost fallacy

But even if you’re gonna kick speaks inside more, who you gonna take off the field ? You’re gonna want Jones out there, nnadi has shown he belongs and you just drafted Saunders and traded for Ogbah.

It just doesn’t seem like their moves show that they have much faith in speaks. Maybe he just needs more development time but with him being a 2nd rounder you don’t have a lot of time to see before you get into contract stuff with it only being 4 years etc to get value

Speaks moving inside gives you another interior pass rusher. He was getting work with the starters in OTA’s.

Have you seen this defense when Chris Jones is not on the field? The interior pass rush is non-existent.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Speaks moving inside gives you another interior pass rusher. He was getting work with the starters in OTA’s.

Have you seen this defense when Chris Jones is not on the field?

But it’s a new defense and scheme so we can’t really use that as a barometer

It would be nice to have more interior rushers for sure but I’m thinking Saunders will be the key for that moreso than speak. I’m not sure that he’s going to be much better inside as he’s just not overly explosive

Maybe he can use his strength more though

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

But it’s a new defense and scheme so we can’t really use that as a barometer

It would be nice to have more interior rushers for sure but I’m thinking Saunders will be the key for that moreso than speak. I’m not sure that he’s going to be much better inside as he’s just not overly explosive

Maybe he can use his strength more though

This is the first time in a while that I feel like we have depth everywhere up front. I’m not worried about where guys were drafted, how quickly they’re developing into starters etc. I just like the fact that we have a lot of young talent and I’m excited to see how it shakes out. If Speaks is a bust, but Saunders is a stud to go with Nnadi and Jones? I know I won’t give two ****s. If Lee turns out to be a steal, but DOD sucks? Vice Versa? Who cares. I just feel a lot better knowing we’re not just depending on one guy at each of those spots. There’s youth and talent all over the DL.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by O.city

Maybe they’re hedging bets but that’s just another way of saying we don’t fully believe in the guys we drafted

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. No reason to keep rolling with it once you have more info ie sunk cost fallacy

But even if you’re gonna kick speaks inside more, who you gonna take off the field ? You’re gonna want Jones out there, nnadi has shown he belongs and you just drafted Saunders and traded for Ogbah.

It just doesn’t seem like their moves show that they have much faith in speaks. Maybe he just needs more development time but with him being a 2nd rounder you don’t have a lot of time to see before you get into contract stuff with it only being 4 years etc to get value

You have to remember that we lost 3 of the 4 pass rushers that made up the best pass rush in the league, so they needed to replace all 3 of these guys.

Clark replaces Ford, Okafor replaces Houston and I think the plan is for Speaks to take over Bailey’s role as the depth pass rusher.

I think you will see an awful lot of Speaks and DOD in the nickel, especially on passing downs.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

This is the first time in a while that I feel like we have depth everywhere up front. I’m not worried about where guys were drafted, how quickly they’re developing into starters etc. I just like the fact that we have a lot of young talent and I’m excited to see how it shakes out. If Speaks is a bust, but Saunders is a stud to go with Nnadi and Jones? I know I won’t give two ****s. If Lee turns out to be a steal, but DOD sucks? Vice Versa? Who cares. I just feel a lot better knowing we’re not just depending on one guy at each of those spots. There’s youth and talent all over the DL.

It’s just an issue that comes up in terms of a development arc that Becomes a problem sometimes

I don’t care who develops or who plays as long as they’re good and produce and in the end, most 4th rounders plus will wash out anyway

But the past couple drafts 2nd rounders haven’t been good and that’s had a lot to do with the defensive crater

[O.city]

Originally Posted by RunKC

You have to remember that we lost 3 of the 4 pass rushers that made up the best pass rush in the league, so they needed to replace all 3 of these guys.

Clark replaces Ford, Okafor replaces Houston and I think the plan is for Speaks to take over Bailey’s role as the depth pass rusher.

I think you will see an awful lot of Speaks and DOD in the nickel, especially on passing downs.

Seems like that’s the plan

Interested to see who stands out once the pads come on