Alabama's Derrick Henry is one of college football's most "elusive" backs, according to research done by Pro Football Focus and published at ESPN ($).
According to the scouting and analysis company, Henry is sixth among college running backs in what it calls "elusive rating," a measurement of created missed tackles and yards after contact.
A career-high 148 yards helped to spark Alabama's dominant performance against Georgia, as Henry made nine tacklers miss and picked up 83 of those yards after contact. He's now eighth in the country with 3.45 yards after contact per carry while his 21 forced missed tackles rank 10th.
Henry is just the third-ranked SEC back, per PFF, behind No. 1 Leonard Fournette of LSU and No. 4 Nick Chubb of Georgia, but the rating is still a bit of a surprise. Henry is, of course, listed at 6'3" and 242 pounds, two inches taller and 12 pounds heavier than Fournette's listed height and weight, not to mention Chubb's listed 5'10" height. "Elusive" is not the word that most often comes to mind when watching Henry run.
And yet, partly because PFF's measurement accounts for both absorbing and evading contact, he's getting his just due for being hard to bring down.