- Stewart excels at making defenders miss: Top-10 draft pick Ashton Jeanty led the nation in forced missed tackles per attempt last season, and Stewart was right behind him in second place.
- Why Stewart is a promising prospect: PFF’s stable metrics, of which missed tackles forced per attempt is one, predict future success and are most likely to translate from year to year — including from college to the NFL.
- Subscribe to PFF+: Get access to player grades, PFF Premium Stats, fantasy football rankings, all of the PFF fantasy draft research tools and more!
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Scouting for the 2026 NFL Draft is still in its infancy. Nearly a year separates us from the next crop of NFL prospects hearing their names called, but it’s never too early to dig into the numbers and pinpoint diamonds in the rough.
PFF premium stats is one way to do so. The database goes beyond just the common numbers, providing contextualized stable and unstable metrics for each position.
One player who stands out early in the process is Virginia Tech running back Terion Stewart, formerly of Bowling Green.
Stewart was a three-star recruit in the 2019 recruiting class. His first year at Bowling Green was the COVID-shortened season, but he still led the team in rushing yards as a true freshman. In 2021, he started five games and missed three due to injury. Stewart sat out the 2022 campaign to “focus more on [his] health and academic responsibilities” but returned in 2023 and immediately took over as a backfield weapon for the next two seasons. With one year of eligibility remaining, he transferred to Virginia Tech for the 2025 season, where he’ll replace draft pick Bhayshul Tuten.
When we evaluate running backs, PFF’s missed tackles forced per attempt metric is invaluable in judging a player independent of their offensive line. And that’s where Stewart shines.
The statistic is exactly what it sounds like: Whether it be from a juke move, a stiff arm or a lowering of the shoulder, it encapsulates how often a player eludes a potential tackle. The beauty of the metric is that it doesn’t really matter how good the offensive line is; a running back can force a missed tackle behind the line of scrimmage, at the line of scrimmage and beyond the line of scrimmage. Of course, getting to space at the second level makes it easier to rack up forced missed tackles, so some context is helpful to judge a back’s abilities.
Ashton Jeanty, the sixth-overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, led the FBS with a 0.41 missed tackles forced average last season. Stewart was right behind him, placing second with a 0.40 average. In 2023, Stewart paced the country in the metric (0.63), well ahead of previous seasons’ leaders: Trey Benson (0.51, 2022), Bijan Robinson (0.40, 2021) and Javonte Williams (0.48, 2020). The general takeaway is that anything above 0.40 in a season is an incredible mark.
Stewart has hit or surpassed 0.40 missed tackles forced per attempt not just once, but three times, with 2021 rounding out his trifecta. In a five-year sample size of every FBS running back with at least 70 carries (more than 1,100 players), Stewart owns the first-, seventh- and 32nd-ranked averages in a single season.
Highest Averages Since 2020 | FBS Running Backs
| Player, Team | Year | Forced Missed Tackles/Att. |
| 1. Terion Stewart, Bowling Green | 2023 | 0.63 |
| 2. Trey Benson, Florida State | 2022 | 0.51 |
| T-3. Ramon Jefferson, Sam Houston | 2021 | 0.50 |
| T-3. Isaiah Ifanse, California | 2023 | 0.50 |
| 5. Roschon Johnson, Texas | 2022 | 0.49 |
The stat is also a stable metric, which predicts future success from year to year. In other words, if a player is good at making tacklers miss in college, they have a strong chance of doing so in the NFL, even with a built-in dip in rate because of the bump in talent. The opposite is true, too.
The jump in competition for Stewart in the ACC should be fun to watch, especially since the Hokies just helped Tuten rush for more than 1,100 yards in 2024. Just based on his tackle-eluding ability alone, Stewart is a name to know heading into the college football season and the 2026 NFL Draft.
This news was originally published on this post .
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