Washington Commanders HC Dan Quinn on CB Emmanuel Forbes' 'Superpower' and His Limits

Washington Commanders head coach spoke about his second-year cornerback ahead of Wednesday's OTA practice.

Jan 7, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders cornerback Emmanuel Forbes (13) runs onto the field with teammates prior to their game against the Dallas Cowboys at FedExField. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Recently there has become concern surrounding Washington Commanders cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. due to a picture that hit social media showing him next to a high school football player where he looked drastically thin and undersized.

Are we concerned about skinny Emmanuel Forbes? pic.twitter.com/n0zNZbF9fn

— Barstool DMV (@Barstooldmv) May 27, 2024

Yes, that is Forbes Jr. on the left.

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The concern is warranted as many had wanted Forbes Jr. to put on weight this offseason after seeing him play at a similar size during his rookie season. The Commanders' official website has him listed at 180 pounds, but by the looks of things, this could be deceiving.

With the news and picture making their rounds, head coach Dan Quinn was asked following Wednesday's OTA practice what he and the coaching staff are doing to work around the physical limitation with Emmanuel Forbes Jr.

"The first part is really the ball skills and at that spot to be able to turn the ball over as a defense, that's something that you really want," Quinn said of Forbes. "And that's, I would say his superpower, and the thing that he was so strong at. And so, from there you look for length. It doesn't always necessarily mean the size to it, and he's bigger than he was for sure. He has worked hard on that this offseason to see that weight going up. But the length and the ball skills at that position, outside on that freeway, there's some real athletes and you're just seeing more of this happen. You see some of the big numbers at contracts at receiver and corners, and so that position alone, man, it really calls for athleticism, the ball skills and having that length to be able to defend some of the bigger players."

Quinn didn't dive into much detail, but he also didn't deflect from the question - although it seemed to be headed in that direction from the beginning of his statement.

Forbes Jr. does possess elite length and athleticism, but he struggled in coverage last season by not being able to match up and compete with these big-bodied WRs down the field. It would have been nice to see at least some sort of progress since the end of last season, but there is still time for Forbes Jr. to keep adding on weight prior to training camp and the season.

Forbes Jr. will have some competition for one of the starting CB spots with Michael Davis now in the fold, but he will also look to improve off his 34 tackles, 11 passes defended, one interception, and one fumble recovery state line from a year ago.

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