Commanders Coach Dan Quinn Reveals Emmanuel Forbes Jr.'s 'Super Power'

Washington Commanders cornerback Emmanuel Forbes struggled mightily in his rookie season after he was a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Arizona Cardinals v Washington Commanders / Jess Rapfogel/GettyImages

ORLANDO - If the Washington Commanders are going to make a quick turnaround, head coach Dan Quinn has to fix the defense.

Part of fixing the defense will be getting cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. to live up to expectations as a first-round pick from the 2023 NFL Draft. The former No. 16 overall pick endured a brutal rookie season on a Commanders defense that was dead-last in points (30.5) and yards (388.9) allowed per game. He was benched at one point and missed two games due to an elbow injury.

Arizona Cardinals v Washington Commanders / Jess Rapfogel/GettyImages

Forbes Jr. was one of the best ball-hawking cornerbacks in college football history, as he had 14 interceptions and ran an FBS record six back for a touchdown during his three seasons at Mississippi State. Given his ability to take the ball away, Quinn said that's what he and the Commanders' defensive coaches need to get him back to.

"I did a lot of work on him coming from the draft before that," Quinn said at the NFL Owners Meetings in Orlando. "The number one thing that stood out was the ball skills and the ability to go take the ball [and] eliminate it. When you have that kind of rare ball skills and return ability with it, that's his superpower. That's I think what makes him so unique. We'll certainly try to accentuate that, but that's the thing that jumped out to me more than anything is he has got this rare ability to find the ball."

Forbes Jr. had one interception in 2023, and he was also credited with allowing 37 catches for 598 yards and three touchdowns by Pro Football Reference, two of which came when he was covering Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro receiver A.J. Brown. He also had a 15.7 percent missed tackle rate after he missed seven tackles last season, according to Pro Football Reference.

Forbes Jr. also didn't grade favorably with Pro Football Focus, as it gave him a grade of 50.9.

With a new regime, Forbes Jr. will likely have a shorter leash as opposed to if he was playing for the one that drafted him last season. With that, the impetus is there for the second-year cornerback to turn things around in a new system. And through the competition that's set to take place under a new coaching staff, Quinn hopes that will bring the best out of Forbes Jr.

"It's all about our competition and so we want it at every single position and it's really the central theme in what we do," Quinn said. "Whether we're in the offseason workouts, we're at practice, just to make sure, ‘hey, this is how we're going to start.’ So there's not any different levels of people. Everybody's learning the systems all at the same exact space. The competition would be the one that really drives that and we're really looking forward to working with him.”