Cleveland Browns film breakdown: Is Drew Forbes the answer at right guard?
By Mitch Zoloty
Where Drew Forbes Needs To Improve
There’s a reason that Drew Forbes fell to the Browns in the sixth round, and that is because he is still raw. Forbes has some technique issues that need to be fixed before he is heavily relied on as a starter. He finds himself lunging a lot on the football field.
He can find himself overextended in pass protection, which leads to him being easily push-pulled by defensive linemen. When pulling, he tends to lead with his head and lunges and can end up missing his blockers.
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These are all technique issues, but they will need to be taught out of his muscle memory. He also needs to work on getting his head play side on blocks. While Forbes showed pretty good recovery on film, he needs to take himself out of situations where he needs to try to recover to salvage a block. He also struggles with hand placement and can find his hands outside of his target surface quite often.
The fundamental teaching points of a block are head placement and hand placement. If Forbes is to continue to develop his game, he needs to improve on both.
On tape, it also looks like he could stand to improve his on-field strength. This is expected though of a rookie, as they’re usually playing against guys who have been lifting more weight for a lot longer than them. The good thing for Forbes’ potential is that technique and strength are two things that can be improved, and specifically improved over the offseason.
Forbes is going to have to improve on these things fast, as the offensive line coach who held him to such high regard is no longer with the team. Coach Bill Callahan will be in charge of the offensive line, and Forbes will have to prove to him that he is worth a roster spot, let alone worth starting.
This shouldn’t be a problem though, as Callahan, like Campen, is one of the top offensive line coaches in the country. If Campen saw something in Forbes that he thought could be super promising, Callahan will likely see the same thing.