Washington Commanders Safety Living Up to Aggressive Directive in Return to Practice

Creating turnovers isn't something the Washington Commanders defense has been known for, but that could change under defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr.

Sep 11, 2022; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders safety Darrick Forrest (22) celebrates after intercepting a pass against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the second half at FedExField. Mandatory Credit: Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports / Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

MIAMI -- Washington Commanders safety Darrick Forrest missed a solid amount of time in training camp dealing with a hamstring injury that kept him out of practices and pads until this past week.

Getting on the field against the Miami Dolphins on Thursday wasn't just part of Forrest's return to the Commanders' defense, but an opportunity for him to make up for lost time. He wasted none of it making a play for his unit, and representing his new coordinator's aggressive brand of football.

"I knew that something was going to be coming back towards me," Forrest said as he began describing a play on which the Washington safety ripped the ball away from a Dolphins receiver. "I was running towards the middle of the field and he kind of went under me, so I had a speed turn and get back to it. As soon as he caught it, I had punched, and then when the ball moved, I'm like, 'I know I'm going to be able to get this out.' When he hit the ground, I threw it as far as I could."

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Sep 11, 2022; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders safety Darrick Forrest (22) celebrates after intercepting a pass against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the second half at FedExField. Mandatory Credit: Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports / Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

We didn't have the best view of the play but it appeared to be bang-bang enough that the pass likely would have been ruled incomplete. Beyond that, however, it's exactly the type of play the new aggressive Commanders defense is expected to play in this new era of Commanders football.

Through the first joint practice and preseason game against the New York Jets the defense held their own at times but failed to come up with any takeaways. That stuck out more in the preseason loss to the Jets than at practice, said head coach Dan Quinn.

“The tackling and the ball-hawking defensively is a big piece just like breaking tackles and ball (security) on offense," Quinn said ahead of practice with Miami on Thursday. "So those two things are always kind of at the front of my thinking and lots of examples that I showed to the team, they come from those two topics a lot.”

Ahead of training camp and the NFL preseason Forrest was one of the inherited players that appeared to fit new defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr.'s mantra of attacking defense the best.

Injury took him out of competition for a period of time, and it took just one opportunity against a live opponent to reintroduce himself to this new-look defense.

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