The days where it’s great to have two sports radio stations under the same umbrella: fans got to hear Emmanuel Forbes’ introductory press conference during Craig Hoffman’s show on The Team 980, and a little while later, the Commanders’ first-round pick joined Grant & Danny on 106.7 The Fan for a quick interview!
Forbes watched his name get called with about 50 family and friends – he’s one of 10 siblings, so the family is quite large – and then heard at length from critics up and down the dials about his size, or lack thereof. So, when he joined Grant & Danny Friday, Danny asked Forbes to compare himself to Fred Smoot, to which Forbes immediately shot back “look at the numbers, Emmanuel Forbes!”
The thing with that comparison between Mississippi State cornerbacks is that Smoot was also on the smallish side at 172 pounds, a couple meals heavier than Forbes was listed at, but had the kind of successful NFL career Forbes hopes to have.
“I don’t even pay attention to all that, I play football. I’m just myself on the field, honestly,” Forbes said. “I’m good at creating turnovers, and I have a knack for being around the ball; I just have to work this offseason on putting myself in better positions.”
Darcel McBath, Forbes’ position coach at Mississippi State, had a lot of positive things to say about the instincts Forbes has and how hard he works to refine them – and Forbes credits McBath with a lot of what he’s learned about how to do that.
“I watched a lot of film in high school, but when I got to college, that’s when I really learned how to watch film like a pro,” Forbes said. “I was learning how to pick out small details in a game, and that just put me in better positions to make plays on the ball. You have to put yourself in position to make plays, which comes from film study, but you also have to have the athleticism to make it work.”
Going into Thursday night, Forbes knew the Commanders were “on me hard” after a good Top 30 visit, and they ended up picking him as he thought they would if he fell to them. He met pretty much everyone of import in the facility and broke down film in that visit, and clearly, the Commanders liked what they heard and saw – and now, Forbes is officially a Commander.
He’ll be heading home to train until rookie minicamp, and once the season comes, we found out that twice a year, he’ll be able to try to go stride-for-stride, in theory, with his idol, Darius Slay, which was an admission much to G&D’s chagrin.
Whether or not he fills a similar role for the Commanders as Slay does for the Eagles, though, remains to be seen.
“I’m an outside guy, so I’ll hopefully stick out there, but I’m willing to do anything to make the team better,” Forbes said.
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