He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, earning consensus All-American honors and winning the Lou Groza Award in 2009.

[5] He became the first UCLA player to record five field goals of at least 50 yards in a season, including a freshman-best 54-yarder versus Oregon.

[6][7] In his sophomore year, Forbath received first-team All-Pacific-10 honors after making 19 of 22 field goals on the season, including his last 13 straight.

Competing with Leigh Tiffin of Alabama and Blair Walsh of Georgia, Forbath was named the winner of the 2009 Lou Groza Award, recognizing the best placekicker in college football.

[11] In the previous week, He kicked a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter to give the Bruins a 24–3 lead in the game against then-#23 Houston.

[18] The performance of fellow rookie Dan Bailey made the Cowboys decide to keep Forbath on the NFI list during all of the regular season.

[41] Forbath finished his career with Washington as the second-most accurate kicker in team history, converting 87.0 percent of his field goal attempts (60-of-69).

[42] The New Orleans Saints signed Forbath on October 19, 2015, to replace a struggling Zach Hocker, who was released by the team.

[43] Forbath played in first career game as a member of the Saints in Week 7 against the Indianapolis Colts on October 25, 2015, converting on three-of-four extra point attempts in the 27–21 victory.

[44] On November 1, in Week 8, Forbath ended a record-breaking 52–49 shootout against the New York Giants at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with a 50-yard field goal as time expired.

On November 29, in Week 12, Forbath kicked a career-long 57-yard field goal against the Houston Texans, which is the third-longest in team history.

[45] On January 3, 2016, Forbath kicked a 30-yard game-winning field goal in the regular season finale in Week 17 against the Atlanta Falcons as time expired, his sixth career game-winner.

However, a few days later, on September 6, the Saints also released Forbath in favor of an undrafted rookie kicker, Wil Lutz, who had gone through training camp with the Baltimore Ravens.

[49] On November 16, 2016, the Minnesota Vikings signed Forbath to a one-year, $760,000 contract after releasing incumbent kicker Blair Walsh.

[64] On November 29, 2019, the New England Patriots signed Forbath after the team released Nick Folk, who had undergone an emergency appendectomy.

[65] Forbath became the fourth placekicker on the Patriots' active roster in the 2019 season, after longtime kicker Stephen Gostkowski was placed on injured reserve after Week 4, original replacement Mike Nugent was released after four games, and Folk.

He made his Patriots debut on December 1, 2019, in a Week 13 matchup against the Houston Texans handling only field goals and extra points (punter Jake Bailey handled kick-off duties) and went 1-for-2 on extra points and made a 23-yard field goal in a 28–22 loss.

[67] He helped to stabilize the placekicker position and didn't miss a kick for the rest of the season, making 10-of-10 field goals and 10-of-10 extra points.