2021 NFL Draft: How the Washington Football Team performed on Day 3
By Jonathan Eig
Washington Football Team draft pick: S Darrick Forrest
And everyone knew Washington needed a deep safety. They passed in free agency. They passed in the early rounds of the draft. When their pick came around in the fifth round, Jamar Johnson and Richard LeCounte (with whom Washington also met at the Senior Bowl) were available.
On some draft boards that I looked at before the draft, both Johnson and LeCounte were ranked more than 100 spots ahead of Darrick Forrest, the safety from Cincinnati.
Forrest is a flexible safety. He has the size and speed to play either classic spot. On the other hand, maybe he doesn’t fit either role perfectly. I have to admit that I worried about the exact same thing with last year’s seventh-round safety Kamren Curl.
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Forrest and Curl look very much alike to me, and that may be the point. There isn’t a big bruiser who will play in the box and the fast, rangy guy who will play deep. They are both just solid safeties who can play up close or can play a two-deep zone.
After what they found in Curl last year I am prepared to give Forrest every benefit of the doubt.