Needing some depth in the secondary, the Los Angeles Rams recently claimed Emmanuel Forbes Jr., who was waived by the Washington Commanders.
Forbes was drafted 16th overall in the first round by the Commanders in 2023 out of Mississippi State. While he has not been able to live up to that pick so far in his young career, he is excited for a fresh start with the Rams, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“It’s part of the business,” Forbes said. “I wish it didn’t happen like that, but it did. And like you said, I have a fresh start here and a clean slate, and I’m just ready to take advantage of it.”
Landing with the Rams, in particular, excites Forbes as he can already see how well things are run in the organization:
“It’s a team that’s bonded together, and they seem like a lot of great people and a lot of great coaches,” Forbes said. “Just ready to get started with them.”
After speaking with his new coaches, Forbes believes playing with confidence is key for him getting back to being the player he once was:
“That’s one thing they said they’d seen, that I wasn’t playing with confidence,” Forbes said. “And that’s one thing I’m looking forward to, just go out here and play ball, and not worry about other things.”
The Rams’ secondary has struggled this season, so taking a chance on someone with the pedigree of Forbes is worth a shot to improve that unit.
It remains to be seen when Forbes will make his debut and what his role will be, but at the very least he can provide some depth at the cornerback position behind Darious Williams, Cobie Durant and Ahkello Witherspoon.
Sean McVay speaks about Rams’ addition of Emmanuel Forbes Jr.
It is not often a team gets to add a former first round pick like Emmanuel Forbes Jr. in the middle of a season and Sean McVay expressed his excitement to see what he can do in L.A.
“[He’s a] player that we liked as part of the evaluation process coming out a couple of years ago out of Mississippi State,” McVay answered when asked why the Rams claimed Forbes off waivers.
“He had a lot of ball production and had some good tape out there, even when we played them last year. He showed versatility, showed competitive toughness on the edge, and good ball skills. A guy that I don’t know too much about personally, but Kam Curl was excited to be able to reunite with him.
“We’ll get him in here and get him acclimated to the building, but he was a guy that we liked and had a familiarity with just based on the evaluation coming out of Mississippi State and then I thought there was some good tape that he’s put out there when we’ve gone against him, particularly later in the year last year.”
