Is Darrick Forrest ready for an expanded role on Commanders defense?
Taking a closer look at Forrest's play in preseason and what role he could fill for Washington this season.
When the Washington Commanders drafted safety Darrick Forrest in the fifth-round of the 2021 NFL draft, the team made it clear that they envisioned him as a core special teams player early in his career without too much pressure on him to contribute much to the defense. A year later, however, and the Commanders have been mixing Forrest in with the starting defense as part of a three safety package alongside Kam Curl and Bobby McCain. So how has Forrest developed and what could his role be with the team entering his second season? Let’s take a closer look.
During preseason, when Forrest has played with the starting unit, he’s often played as the strong safety while Curl shifts up to his buffalo (big) nickel role and McCain maintains his spot at free safety. From this strong safety spot, Forrest has shown some impressive run defense.
Here, Forrest starts off at about 10 yards off the line of scrimmage as part of a two-deep safety look. However, once the ball is snapped, he quickly identifies the run and works up to the line of scrimmage to support. Linebacker Jamin Davis does a nice job aggressively taking on the fullback, forcing the running back to try and bounce his run to the edge. Forrest mirrors the path of the back and makes a strong form tackle to wrap him up and bring him down.
As the strong safety, Forrest also has to be able to rotate down into the box and be a more direct part of the run fit. He showed he was capable of doing that too.
This time, the Panthers run a power scheme to their right with the left guard pulling to the right side of the line. Forrest rotates up to the line of scrimmage almost acting as an extra linebacker. As the ball is snapped, he quickly reads the pulling guard and is extremely aggressive in taking him on. He engages the guard behind the line of scrimmage and does a terrific job of getting low and attacking the outside shoulder, blowing up the block and preventing the running back from working to that side. By taking on the guard, Forrest freed up the linebacker inside to penetrate and take away the inside gap too, giving the back nowhere to go as he’s tackled at the line of scrimmage.
Forrest proved effective against the run throughout preseason, but as a safety, he also has to be capable in coverage too. Forrest is still developing in this aspect of his game and as such can be inconsistent at times. In the preseason, he had both good and bad reps, even when running similar coverages.
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