Buffalo Rumblings
Is he a roster lock, a starter, a specialist, or is he going to be released?
The Buffalo Bills under head coach Sean McDermott have done a nice job finding talent in the defensive secondary. The team and their personnel evaluators have done well to find players who fit their system and can develop into the best versions of themselves under the current staff’s tutelage.
Safety, in particular, has been a position where the team has found players that other teams didn’t necessarily value highly and allowed them to flourish in Orchard Park, NY. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer showed flashes in their previous NFL stops, but they became All-Pro players with the Bills. Buffalo’s pass defense has consistently ranked among the league’s best in the regular season with McDermott in charge.
In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss a 2025 free-agent signing whose potential role this season is entirely in flux.
Name: Darrick Forrest
Number: 28
Position: S
Height/Weight: 5’11”, 200 pounds
Age: 26 (27 on 5/22/2026)
Experience/Draft: 5; selected by the Washington Commanders in the fifth round (No. 163 overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft
College: Cincinnati
Acquired: Signed with Buffalo on 3/13/2025
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Forrest signed a one-year contract back in March. That deal contains just $167,500 in guarantees, which also represents the dead-cap figure Buffalo would carry if he were to be released prior to Week 1.
Forrest’s cap number if he makes the 53-man roster is $1,197,500 for the season. As a vested veteran, his base salary, which totals $1.17 million, becomes fully guaranteed if he’s on the Bills’ roster for Week 1.
2024 Recap: Forrest returned to a special teams role last season after having started the final nine games of the 2022 season and the first five games of the 2023 season. His 2023 season ended prematurely, as a shoulder injury caused him to land on Injured Reserve.
With a new coaching staff in town last year, Forrest took on a reserve role. He was active for 10 of the Commanders’ regular-season games, totaling just 13 tackles on the season. He started one game — Washington’s regular-season finale against the Dallas Cowboys — but was otherwise seldom used on defense. He played on 74 defensive snaps, with 32 coming in that final game and 31 coming in a Week 15 victory over the New Orleans Saints.
In the playoffs, Forrest was inactive for Washington’s Super Wild Card Weekend victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he was active and used exclusively on special teams for the Commanders’ other two playoff appearances. He had two special teams tackles in the team’s blowout loss in the NFC Championship Game.
Positional outlook: Forrest is one of five players who exclusively play safety on the current roster. Taylor Rapp, Cole Bishop, Wande Owens, and Damar Hamlin are the others. Jordan Hancock and Cam Lewis are hybrid slot corners-slash-safeties.
2025 Offseason: Forrest is healthy and participating in training camp. While he...
