MOBILE, Ala. (August 23, 2023) Six Washington State players were named to the 2024 Reese's Senior Bowl Watch List by the Senior Bowl announced Wednesday.

The Reese's Senior Bowl has been working since last February to identify the "best of the best" draft prospects at every level of college football for the 2024 NFL Draft.Every position player (non-specialists) who made the list was evaluated by our staff and tape-based grades were logged on hundreds of other senior prospects. Every player on this list is eligible to participate in an all-star game as either a 2019 high school graduate or true four-year player (with five or more games played in three previous seasons). This list does not include many true or redshirt juniors who could become eligible as December 2023 (or earlier) graduates. Linebacker Daiyan Henley played in the Senior Bowl last season.

EDGE Brennan Jackson, safety Sam Lockett III, cornerback Chau Smith-Wade, EDGE Ron Stone Jr., quarterback Cameron Ward and running back Nakia Watson were all named to the watch list for the 2024 Reese's Senior Bowl.

Jackson, a redshirt-senior from Temecula, Calif., was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2022, his third career all-conference accolade after receiving honorable mention the previous two seasons. Jackson recorded 41 tackles, tied for fourth in the Pac-12 with 12 tackles-for-loss including a team-high six sacks. Jackson also forced one fumble, broke up three passes and led the team with 38 quarterback pressures.

Lockett III transferred from City College of San Francisco prior to last season and started 10 games as a safety and led the team with three interceptions. The redshirt-senior from Spokane, Wash. tallied 51 tackles, broke up three passes and recovered one fumble. Lockett recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter of the win at No. 19 Wisconsin, made 11 tackles against No. 15 Oregon and picked off two passes in the win at Arizona.

Smith-Wade, a junior from Denver, earned his first career All-Pac-12 accolade in 2022 after making 42 tackles with 2.5 for loss, tied for the Pac-12 lead with three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, a team-best eight pass breakups and two interceptions. Smith-Wade earned the fourth-best defensive grade and fourth-best coverage grade in the Pac-12 by PFF College.

Redshirt-senior Stone Jr. is coming off a 2022 campaign that saw him earn his second-straight all-conference honor after being named to the first team in 2021. Stone Jr., from San Jose, Calif., recorded34 tackles including four for loss with two sacks, three pass breakups and tied for second in the Pac-12 with 11 quarterback hits.

Last season, in his first season with the Cougars, Ward was named All-Pac-12 Conference Honorable Mention after starting all 13 games, leading WSU to its seventh straight bowl game and throwing for 3,231 yards and 23 touchdowns. The junior from West Columbia, Texas recorded four 300-yard games, rushed for five touchdowns, had five games with one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown and was named a semifinalist for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award, given to the top offensive player from Texas. Last season, Ward completed 320 passes, the eighth-most in WSU single-season history while his 64.4 completion percentage was ninth-best in WSU single-season history.

Watson, a redshirt-senior from Austin, Texas, earned his first career all-conference honor in 2022 after finishing the regular season ninth in the Pac-12 with 13 total touchdowns and seventh with 96.7 all-purpose yards-per-game, seventh with 69.9 rushing yards-per-game and tied for eighth with nine rushing touchdowns. Watson had three 100-yard rushing games, forced 36 missed tackles on runs and was third in the Pac-12 with ten runs of 20+yards.

The Reese's Senior Bowl is widely regarded as the preeminent college football all-star game and the first stage in the NFL Draft process. The longest continual-running all-star game has taken place in Mobile, Ala. the past 74 years. More than 900 NFL personnel, including key decision-makers from all 32 teams, and over 900 media members from around the country were credentialed last year.