Darrick Forrest continuing positive development
Breaking down how Forrest played against the Eagles.
Washington Commanders safety Darrick Forrest has come a long way in a short period of time. When he was drafted in the fifth round of the 2021 draft, Washington pretty much labeled him a special teams player without any expectations of him contributing on defense. That turned out to be the case in his rookie season, but in his second season he’s developed significantly and has now carved out an important role within the defense.
He’s become a key component as the third safety alongside Kam Curl and Bobby McCain and that three safety package is currently the Commanders main personnel group on defense while linebacker Cole Holcomb remains sidelined due to injury. That safety trio are all flexible and can fill a variety of different roles. McCain has typically been the deep safety but is playing more over the slot in recent weeks. Curl can play deep but also up in the box almost acting as an extra linebacker or over the slot too. Forrest has mainly played as a deeper safety, either in the deep middle or as part of a two-deep safety look.
Forrest had perhaps his most impactful game of the season against the Eagles on Monday night. He was credited with six total tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery. So let's take a closer look at the performance of this emerging piece of the Commanders secondary, starting with his interception.
On this play, the Eagles initially line up with three receivers to the left of the formation and one isolated to the right. The Eagles run a concept that can be tough to defend for a deep safety, with a deep over route from the right side designed to give Forrest something to bite up on while the deep post route from the left of the formation runs by him. Forrest starts as part of a two-deep safety look but is actually responsible for the deep middle of the field or “in the post” as he called it after the game.
As the ball is snapped, Forrest rotates back to the middle of the field and feels the receiver breaking over the middle as he keeps his eyes in the backfield on the quarterback. He backpedals to gain depth and waits for the quarterback to signal his intent. Once the quarterback starts to throw, Forrest turns to run, as he explained after the game.
“When I seen him get ready to throw the ball I’m like ‘alright let’s find the receiver’ and I got my eyes to the receiver and I looked back for the ball. I don’t know how exactly I came down with it but I made the play.”
It was a strong read by Forrest. Plenty of safeties would have taken that bait underneath or not been able to make up the ground on the deep ball, but Forrest is a very good athlete and does a great job getting back to contest the throw and come away with the interception.
Forrest’s other hugely impactful play was the fumble recovery after the Commanders gave up a long pass.
On this play, the Commanders appear to be playing a quarter-quarter-half coverage, meaning one side of the defense is playing quarters while Forrest is playing a deep half on his side. The Eagles attempt to attack the quarters side of the field with a nice route combination, but while that’s not on his side of the field, Forrest still has to be prepared to try and help out on that side, as Ron Rivera explained.
“Because of his alignment, he’s reading the releases of #1 and #2 to his side. #2 drags underneath which tells him ‘hey, I gotta launch now to get vertical” which you see him do. He barely misses making the play on the ball, but yet because of his great effort and hustle, the same thing with Benjamin [St-Juste], we were able to get the fumble recovery that was caused by Benjamin. That was an example that he’s got to do something on the fly, he sees it happen and then bam, his instincts take over and he makes the break that he’s supposed to.”
I think Rivera was perhaps a little bit generous with how Forrest read the play. He didn’t immediately “launch” when the slot receiver went shallow, he waited a little bit longer for the quarterback to begin his throwing motion. But he nearly had the speed to make up the ground all the way from the other side of the field and from the end zone replay angle you can see just how close he actually got to the ball. But the important part here is that Forrest didn’t give up on the play. Benjamin St-Juste works back after getting beat and surprises the receiver with a hit that forces the ball loose and Forrest replicates that effort to recover the fumble.
These were two hugely impactful plays in the game, two turnovers will give any team a huge opportunity to win. But Forrest had more positive plays than just those two.
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