The 5 O’Clock Club: A turning point for young safeties Darrick Forrest and Quan Martin

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There are four players I think are particularly impacted by the coaching change from Ron Rivera LLC to Dan Quinn & Co, and all of them are on defense. Two of those players are LB Jamin Davis and CB Emmanuel Forbes, but their situations are for another day. Today I want to highlight two young safeties – 2023 second-round pick Quan Martin and 2021 fifth-round pick Darrick Forrest.

For both players, 2024 appears to be a time of change that will almost certainly shape (or re-shape) the course of the rest of their careers.

Quan Martin

Quan Martin had a good rookie season in 2023, but it started slowly. Martin didn’t play a single defensive snap in the first five weeks and was even inactive for the Denver game in Week 2. He got a few defensive snaps in Weeks 6-8 (17 snaps in 3 games), but from there he played an increasingly important role in the team’s defense, playing more than 30 snaps per game in Weeks 12 and 13 before playing nearly full-time in the final four weeks of the season.

Martin’s development was certainly influenced by his own skills, but it was also influenced by what was happening in the rest of the defensive backfield – a situation that was in flux for most of the season.

Jack Del Rio opened the 2023 season again by trying to convert Benjamin St-Juste into a slot corner. There’s no telling how long that attempt would have lasted if first-round pick Emmanuel Forbes hadn’t struggled so much on the field. In 7 games (out of 9 total) from Weeks 6-15, Forbes played a total of 21 defensive snaps and was even benched for a few games during that time frame. With Forbes on the bench, St-Juste was called upon to play boundary corner, and Del Rio increasingly resorted to safety Quan Martin to play nickel coverage.

Inflection

This offseason, the Commanders drafted Mike Sainristil in the second round. He is a “specialist” as a slot corner, which would seem to threaten Martin’s role on the team, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case.

Instead, defensive coordinator Joe Whitt appears to see Martin as a potential starting safety who could be paired with fifth-year player Jeremy Chinn, who was signed as a free agent to replace Kam Curl.

To some extent, head coach Dan Quinn and Whitt seem to embrace the concept of “positionless” players (think of how they used linebacker Micah Parsons as a pass rusher in Dallas), so we may see Chinn play as a safety, linebacker, or blitzer against the quarterback. It’s likely that Whitt’s scheme defines players less rigidly than the traditional roles of free/strong safety and linebackers WILL, MIKE, and SAM. In this defense, Quan Martin appears to be stepping into the free safety role, although he will likely play multiple positions/roles.

However, based on the OTAs and minicamp, it seems likely that Martin will be on the field frequently in 2024. If nothing changes during training camp, we will likely see Martin on the field early and often as a safety, but at the nickelback position when Sainristil is not on the field or when offensive strategies or matchups necessitate his presence.

Quan Martin probably had the highlight of May and June when he intercepted a pass in a not entirely conventional manner:

If Martin can succeed as part of a revamped defensive secondary under a new coaching staff, he has a chance to cement his place on the Commanders’ defensive roster for years to come and transform into one of those rarest creatures – a successful 21st century second-round pick for the Washington franchise.

Darrick Forrest

It’s not hard to prove that Darrick Forrest was a successful fifth-round pick for the Washington franchise. He has started over 50% of the games he has played since being drafted. He has also played 81% of his available defensive snaps in 2022 and 99% of his available defensive snaps in 2023.

His overall defense grade from PFF was consistently above average at 66.1, 67.0, and 61.1 from 2021-23. With his play in 2022 and 2023, Forrest became popular with many fans due to his effort and hard hitting style.

But if you look deeper, it’s not hard to prove that Darrick Forrest wasn’t a successful player for Washington. As a rookie, he didn’t play at all in September or October of the 2021 season, and when he was finally healthy and on the field, he played almost exclusively on special teams, playing just 26 defensive snaps in the 2021 season. Last year (2023), Forrest was a starter and played 100% of the defensive snaps until he injured his shoulder, putting him on the injured list and ending his season abruptly and prematurely in Week 5.

Inflection

In February and early March, I thought Darrick Forrest would be the projected starting free safety heading into training camp, but the current coaching staff seems to have other ideas. Forrest had a pretty good season in 2022 and two injury-plagued seasons in ’21 and ’23. Based on reports from OTAs and minicamp, it appears Quan Martin is ahead of Forrest in the current rankings as it stands.

Unless something changes in training camp, it looks like Darrick Forrest will have to play on defense in 3-safety sets or when Sainristil or Martin are not on the field.

Just as important to his future will be that Darrick Forrest stays healthy, as he did in 2022. This season, Forrest played 850 defensive snaps; in his other two seasons combined, he played just 354.

Adam Peters and Dan Quinn didn’t draft Darrick Forrest, and he’s in the final year of his rookie contract. If he wants to stay in DC and wear the burgundy and gold, he’ll need to stay healthy and play at a high level every time he’s on the field. The alternative is to enter free agency in 2025 as an oft-injured former fifth-round pick who had a good season in 2022. That would establish him on the free agent market as a backup safety with limited prospects seeking a vet minimum deal in 2025.

Darrick Forrest must balance his career with a strong performance in 17 games in 2024 and establish himself as a valuable member of the defense while finishing out his rookie contract and hoping for a lucrative free agent contract in 2025.