Player Dossier

2018-2023

Mississippi State

Nathaniel Watson

LB • 6'2" • 245 lbs • Maplesville, AL, USA

High-volume tacklerDown-to-down presence

Nathaniel Watson shows a high-volume tackler profile with 66.9 disruption score.

Usage / Role

100%

Featured defensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

100

Top-tier box-score impact for a linebacker

lowelite

Reliability

100

Regular contributor with several takeover games

lowhigh

Star Power

80

High-upside career profile

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2023 Regular Season · Mississippi State

181920202121222223

Snapshot

Career Teams
1
Unique Seasons
6
Program Path
Mississippi State
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Western Michigan

Player Story

Nathaniel Watson built his college career from 2018 through 2023 as a linebacker from Maplesville, AL wearing No. 14, spending time with Mississippi State. The clearest part of Nathaniel Watson's career was his...

Read the story
3★

Recruit Profile

Class 2018 · Rating 0.8681

Maplesville · Maplesville, AL

Committed To
Mississippi State
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2018

NFL Draft

Draft Year
2024
Selection
Round 6 · Pick 30
Overall
No. 206
NFL Team
Cleveland Browns

Nathaniel Watson, LB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2023 Regular Season · Mississippi State. Nathaniel Watson shows a high-volume tackler profile with 66.9 disruption score.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Tackles
373
TFL
35
Sacks
21
QB hurries
12
Passes defended
4
Nathaniel Watson Mississippi State Highlights video thumbnail

Featured Highlight

Watch Nathaniel Watson on film

Nathaniel Watson Mississippi State Highlights

2023 · Mississippi State · Player Highlight

Nathaniel Watson college highlights at Mississippi State.

Season
2023
Type
Player highlight

Quick Answers

Nathaniel Watson quick answers

Latest team and position
Mississippi State · LB
Career Tackles
373
Tracked sample
6 unique seasons · 9 entries · 50 games
Best season
2023 Regular Season · Mississippi State
Top game
Western Michigan
Recruit profile
3-star · Maplesville · Mississippi State
High school pipeline
Maplesville · 2 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
NFL Draft
2024 · Round 6 · Pick 30 · Cleveland Browns
Latest roster
No. 14 · Senior
2023 Tackles rank
137 tackles · LB 8th (top 1%) · SEC 1st (top 1%) · National 8th (top 1%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTacklesTFLSacksQB HurPDTDOverall
2018 Regular SeasonMississippi State23-0--038.1
2019 PostseasonMississippi State1210--041.8
2020 PostseasonMississippi State101-0--022.4
2020 Regular SeasonMississippi State10383011022.4
2021 PostseasonMississippi State12611--058.5
2021 Regular SeasonMississippi State12775421058.5
2022 PostseasonMississippi State13111--069.2
2022 Regular SeasonMississippi State131081152-069.2
2023 Regular SeasonMississippi State12137131072081.5

Related Context

Nathaniel Watson played LB for Mississippi State. Across 6 tracked seasons, Nathaniel Watson recorded 373 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2023 with Mississippi State.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2023 Regular Season

Mississippi State paired 33 primary output with 66.9 efficiency.

Supporting note

2022 Postseason role shape

impact-led usage with 48.2 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value is trending up

2023 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Ole Miss

Win with 3.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2022 Postseason · Mississippi State

Games

13

Havoc Plays / G

1.6

Efficiency

48.2

Usage

13.7

Consistency

65

Best Game by takeover score

Ole Miss

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

Hover over a point

Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.

Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

12345678910111213

Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Illinois: 2. Memphis: 0.5. Arizona: 2. LSU: 2. Bowling Green: 2. Texas A&M: 3. Arkansas: 0. Kentucky: 0. Alabama: 2. Auburn: 1. Georgia: 2.5. East Tennessee State: 0.5. Ole Miss: 3.5

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Illinois: 1 by 24.2. Memphis: 4 by 21.7. Arizona: 4 by 36.7. LSU: 11 by 65.8. Bowling Green: 10 by 61.7. Texas A&M: 6 by 55. Arkansas: 6 by 25. Kentucky: 17 by 50. Alabama: 10 by 61.7. Auburn: 10 by 51.7. Georgia: 16 by 75. East Tennessee State: 4 by 21.7. Ole Miss: 10 by 76.7

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins1.6 · Games = 9 · -0.0 vs Losses
Losses1.6 · Games = 4 · +0.0 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

13 games

Featured metric

Havoc Plays

Top game by takeover score

Ole Miss

Best efficiency game

76.7 vs Ole Miss

Result
Mon 1/2@ IllinoisSplash gameW 19-1011110
Fri 11/25@ Ole Miss10+ tackles · Splash gameW 24-221072.5010
Sat 11/19vs East Tennessee StateW 56-7400.5000
Sun 11/13vs Georgia10+ tackles · Splash gameL 19-451651.5000
Sat 11/5vs Auburn10+ tacklesW 39-33104100
Sat 10/22@ Alabama10+ tackles · Splash gameL 6-30105110
Sat 10/15@ Kentucky10+ tacklesL 17-27178000
Sat 10/8vs ArkansasW 40-1762000
Sat 10/1vs Texas A&MSplash gameW 42-2462110
Sat 9/24vs Bowling Green10+ tackles · Splash gameW 45-14104110
Sat 9/17@ LSU10+ tackles · Splash gameL 16-31117110
Sun 9/11@ ArizonaSplash gameW 39-17431010
Sat 9/3vs MemphisW 49-23420.5000

Player Story

Nathaniel Watson story

Nathaniel Watson built his college career from 2018 through 2023 as a linebacker from Maplesville, AL wearing No. 14, spending time with Mississippi State. The clearest part of Nathaniel Watson's career was his defensive production: 373 tackles, 35 tackles for loss, 21 sacks, and 2 interceptions across 50 career games in the available record. That gives Nathaniel Watson's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Mississippi State

    2018-2023

    Opening stop

Season Value Progression

201820192020202020212021202220222023
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2018 Regular SeasonMississippi State06.31
2019 PostseasonMississippi State118.35.51
2020 PostseasonMississippi State520.84.84
2020 Regular SeasonMississippi State520.84.80
2021 PostseasonMississippi State1438.710.59
2021 Regular SeasonMississippi State1438.710.50
2022 PostseasonMississippi State2148.213.77
2022 Regular SeasonMississippi State2148.213.70
2023 Regular SeasonMississippi State3366.919.212

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

vs Western Michigan

Week 6 · W 41-28

Win with backfield disruption leading the way.

6

Havoc Plays

95.8 takeover

6 disruption/tackle impact with 95.8 takeover score.

#2

@ Ole Miss

Week 13 · W 24-22 · Conference game

3.5

Havoc Plays

92.2 takeover

Win with 3.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3.5 disruption/tackle impact with 92.2 takeover score.

#3

vs Ole Miss

Week 13 · L 21-31 · Conference game

2

Havoc Plays

90 takeover

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 90 takeover score.

#4

vs Alabama

Week 7 · L 9-49 · Conference game

2

Havoc Plays

90 takeover

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 90 takeover score.

#5

vs SE Louisiana

Week 1 · W 48-7

5

Havoc Plays

88.9 takeover

Win with 5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

5 disruption/tackle impact with 88.9 takeover score.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2023 Regular Season · Mississippi State

33 primary output · 66.9 efficiency · 19.2 usage

81.5

#2

2022 Postseason · Mississippi State

69.2

21 primary · 48.2 efficiency · 13.7 usage

#3

2022 Regular Season · Mississippi State

69.2

21 primary · 48.2 efficiency · 13.7 usage

Milestones

25

Impact games

23

Splash games

16

10+ tackle games