Evaluating how rookie CB Emmanuel Forbes played against the 49ers

Taking a closer look at the performance of CB Emmanuel Forbes against the 49ers

It’s fair to say it’s been a rough rookie season for Commanders first-round pick Emmanuel Forbes. The cornerback entered the season with expectations sky high but has fallen drastically short of those expectations. He’s been put in poor positions and had his weaknesses exposed against some of the best receivers in the league before being benched. Recently he’s worked his way back into the line up but only as a rotational piece behind starters Kendall Fuller and Benjamin St-Juste. 

This week against the 49ers, however, both Fuller and St-Juste missed the game due to injury, which meant Forbes was elevated to a starting role. So how did he get on against one of the best offenses in the league after some time out of the line up to work on some technical issues? Let's take a closer look. 

Press Coverage

I’m going to split this post into two parts, one looking at how Forbes performed in press coverage and one looking at Forbes playing off coverage. We’ll start with the press coverage because that's what he was asked to do a little more of at the start of the game. As a reminder, I’ll point out that Forbes was drafted on his talent as an off coverage zone corner with great instincts and awareness of route combinations and an ability to break quickly on things underneath. Press man coverage was never his game in college and he struggled to play it earlier this season when the Commanders asked him to. 

His first few reps in this game were poor but he did settle down and steadily improve as the game went on. 

This was one of Forbes’ first reps in press coverage in this game. He’s isolated to the right of the formation against 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, a very strong route runner. Aiyuk appears to run a corner-stop route, known as a swirl route, which sells a fake corner route before breaking off back to the quarterback. At the snap of the ball, Forbes looks to be aggressive with his press and jam Aiyuk as he looks to release inside. Unfortunately he’s too aggressive and gets too far inside, with Aiyuk helping shove him inside as he looks to get vertical with his route. 

Forbes, to his credit, does his best to recover and quickly gets himself turned around and closes in on Aiyuk again. However, as Aiyuk looks to break off his route and work back to the quarterback. Forbes runs into him and pushes him off balance, causing him to fall over with Forbes falling on top of him. Fortunately the ball went elsewhere and the refs missed a potential penalty, so Forbes got away with a bad rep here. 

It wasn’t a great start for Forbes but he did grow into the game as it progressed. He showed gradual improvement, especially in press coverage. 

This play came a few plays after the previous rep we looked at. Forbes is again isolated to the right of the formation, but this time he’s up against rookie receiver Ronnie Bell. Bell looks to run a corner route, releasing inside to give himself space to work back outside further down the route. Forbes stays aggressive but doesn’t go overboard this time, learning from his earlier mistake. He gets his hands on the receiver to force him further inside and disrupt the timing of the route, but he crucially maintains his position on the receivers outside hip. 

By maintaining this position, Forbes is able to stick tight to the receiver as he gets to the top of his route and makes his break outside towards the pylon. He does stumble slightly out of the break, but Forbes still manages to stay relatively tight to the receiver and take him away from the quarterback. It’s only as the play breaks down and the quarterback scrambles out to his right that Forbes starts to lose the rep a little bit. Once the quarterback gets to the sideline and works back inside to extend the play, Forbes loses track of the receiver, but pressure finally catches up and the quarterback is forced to throw it away. 

It was a much improved rep from Forbes who stayed far more in control throughout than he did in the earlier play against Aiyuk. It appeared to give him some confidence too, as he continued to improve in press coverage as the game progressed. 

On this play, the 49ers face a third and short situation near the goal line. Aiyuk splits outside to the right and Forbes lines up in press coverage opposite him. This time, Forbes does a much better job staying patient and not trying to be overly physical with Aiyuk. Instead of trying to jump all over him and getting shoved out of position, Forbes stays patient at the snap and maintains his position. He forces Aiyuk to declare his intentions with his release and sticks on his outside hip as he does so. 

Aiyuk does nearly gain a slight advantage at the top of the route as he looks to break back outside. Forbes gets a little too handsy and leans into Aiyuk’s hip, which almost allows Aiyuk to use that momentum and break away from him. But Forbes is able to recover and stick with Aiyuk as he breaks outside, taking away the route. The quarterback was looking to throw to Aiyuk but as Forbes recovered out of the break, he ended up throwing the ball well out of play to avoid risking an interception. 

The only time Forbes was really beaten in press coverage again was on a play where his coverage was good, he was just beaten by a perfect throw.