Washington Commanders rookie cornerback Emmanuel Forbes has deactivated his Twitter/X account following a rough performance in Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Forbes had been off to a great start to his first NFL season. His good plays outweighed his bad for the most part. However, the Eagles targeted the rookie often with great success.
Forbes allowed four catches of at least 28 yards against the Eagles, per Pro Football Focus. DeVonta Smith snagged a 37-yard leaping catch over Forbes late in the second quarter that set up a field goal.
Brown beat Forbes off press coverage in the third quarter for a 28-yard reception that Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts fit inside a Cover-2 window.
Later in the quarter, Brown blew past Forbes for a 59-yard touchdown that gave Philadelphia a 21-17 lead. Forbes bit on the movement by tight end Dallas Goedert and pump fake from Hurts. That allowed Brown to wheel down the sideline open for the catch and run toward the end zone.
Brown beat Forbes again for a 28-yard touchdown with a stutter step with 1:43 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Philly a 31-24 lead. Dejected, Forbes showed frustration on the sidelines after giving up the big catch.
“They gave the young boy (Emmanuel Forbes) a lot of respect,” Brown said after the game, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. “He was following me, and uh-he started following me, and it was like one-on-one most of the time. So they gave him a lot of respect coming into the game.”
Commanders head coach Ron Rivera said he expected Forbes to “learn from what just happened.”
There was a lot of criticism towards the young cornerback on social media. But it’s unclear if that was why Forbes deactivated his Twitter.
Emmanuel Forbes is only four games into his NFL career. The Commanders selected him 16th overall in this year’s draft for a reason. He got trusted with following Brown over other likely options, Benjamin St-Juste and Kendall Fuller.
That trust hasn’t quite led to the results Washington is looking for. On the season, Forbes has allowed 17 catches on 24 targets, according to PFF.
He has a lot of potential. Hopefully, his subpar performance against the Eagles won’t deter his progression.
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