NFL Draft Profile: Emmanuel Forbes

Taking a closer look at Mississippi State CB Emmanuel Forbes

Yesterday I broke down Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. who has frequently been linked to the Washington Commanders throughout the draft process. While he’s a talented player, I’m not sure he fits Washington’s scheme. One cornerback that might be a better fit for the Commanders is Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes. Forbes is a long but skinny corner, measuring in at 6-foot-1 but just 166 pounds. He doesn’t come with the same hype and press man abilities that Porter does, but he’s more scheme diverse and probably fits with more teams around the league because of it, including Washington. 

The first thing that stands out when watching Forbes is how comfortable, smooth and confident he is in zone coverage. It’s clear he has a strong understanding of not only his role within the system, but the defense as a whole. He knows where his help is which enables him to confidently pass off routes and adjust his coverage to pick up other routes without hesitation. 

This play is a good example of how comfortable and smooth Forbes is in zone coverage. He’s responsible for a deep third on this play with Alabama having the outside receiver running a deep comeback and the slot receiver working in the seam. This can be a tough combination to pick up because the corner naturally focuses on the outside receiver and by the time they peel off the comeback, the receiver in the seam is too far gone to catch up. However, Forbes transitions effortlessly. He gets good depth and that allows him vision to see the whole field, rather than just the outside receiver. 

As the outside receiver breaks off, he doesn’t take the bait and bite down on that route, instead understanding that the flat defender is there for that underneath. Forbes simply continues gaining depth and subtly adjusts his path to work further inside to get on top of the seam route from the slot receiver. Having played the route combination perfectly, Forbes gives the quarterback no option but to scramble and work off-script. Forbes recognizes the situation and adjusts his coverage to then lock onto that slot receiver and stay tight to him, preventing him from becoming an option for the scrambling quarterback. 

Forbes shows this level of understanding of zone coverages regardless of what assignment he’s given. On that play he was responsible for a deep third, but he’s just as comfortable when playing quarters or even playing underneath zones.

Here, Alabama run a corner-flat concept in the red zone. Forbes is a flat defender in this coverage structure but this route combination is designed to stress the coverage Mississippi State uses here. The corner route from the receiver splits the coverage, working between Forbes in the flat and the safety over the top, while the running back swings out to the flat as bait. Alabama are hoping that Forbes will see the running back in the flat and take the bait, biting up and leaving space for the receiver to break off his route behind him and away from the safety. 

However, Forbes is very much aware of what Alabama is trying to do and counters it perfectly. He midpoints the two routes, sinking back just far enough to close the throwing window to the deep corner route while not getting too far back that the running back will have a walk-in touchdown. By sinking back, he combines with the safety to squeeze the deeper route and take it away from the quarterback, who is forced to check it down in the flat to the running back. We then see Forbes quickly flip his hips and trigger on the running back to close quickly and make the tackle with some help from his teammates. 

Forbes is clearly a strong zone defender with a high level of understanding of not only his role, but the bigger overall picture of the defensive structure and how offenses will look to attack it. Having that level of big picture understanding is impressive for a college corner and is a huge asset as he enters the NFL. He’ll fit with any team that plays zone coverage, but many NFL defenses are evolving into match coverages, which start off looking like zone while defenders read the releases of multiple receivers and then decide which one to attach to. This takes a lot of time to learn and perfect, but Forbes appears to have the mental capacity for it, which makes him a strong fit for what the Commanders do defensively. 

One other thing worth noting on that previous play was the tackle at the end. With Forbes weighing in at just 166 pounds, he’s very undersized for an NFL cornerback. An average corner will be around 190 pounds, which is a lot of weight to be missing. As a result, many college teams tried to test how well he could tackle while being significantly undersized. They often ran the ball at him or sent screen passes his way to attack him, but he responded well to almost every test.