Giants 2023 UFA Primer: RB Matt Breida
Matt Breida, Running Back
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 190 lbs.
Age: 27
NFL Exp: 6 Years
College: Georgia Southern
While the rushing column heavily featured the speedy and mobile combination of Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley, the next man up for the New York Giants’ leaderboard and consideration of a new contract this offseason is running back Matt Breida.
A sixth-year player out of Georgia Southern, Breida signed with the Giants on March 21, 2022, on a low-risk deal after the team parted ways with Devontae Booker to save $2.1 million on their then dismal cap space. The 27-year-old spent his previous stints in San Francisco, Miami, and Buffalo before arriving in East Rutherford, the former organization drafting him and for whom he tallied three seasons of 100+ rushes for 1,902 yards and six touchdowns.
Playing in the Sun Belt Conference for his three collegiate seasons, Breida caught the attention of NFL decision-makers by his sophomore year, when he had a conference-leading 171 carries for 1,485 yards and 17 touchdowns and the second-highest performance by a Georgia Southern sophomore. As a junior the following season, he compounded those impressive efforts by posting a career-high 203 carries for 1,609 yards and another 17 touchdowns to earn the second-best performance in Sun Belt history.
Holding two of the school’s best average yards per carry and the sixth-most rushing yards, Breida still went undrafted in 2017 but was picked up by the 49ers as an undrafted free agent months later. Serving as the backup for his rookie campaign, he garnered 105 rushes for 465 yards (4.4 average) and two touchdowns and added 21 receptions for 180 yards and a score through the air.
By Week 2 of his second season, the Brandon, Florida native earned the starting role and flashed to NFL career-highs in rushes (153), rushing yards (814), average rush (5.3), rushing touchdowns (three), and numerous receiving categories.
After his production dropped in 2019 and he fell down the 49ers depth chart late in the season during their run to Super Bowl LIV, Breida was traded to the Miami Dolphins in April 2020 in exchange for a fifth-round pick. Due to injuries further limiting him to 12 games and one start with the team, he tallied 59 rushes for 254 yards and nine receptions for 96 yards to secure the worst stat line of his professional career.
The 2021 season saw Breida sign a one-year contract with the Buffalo Bills, where he played in nine contests behind two other rushers and collected a new career-low 26 carries for 125 yards (4.8 average) and one rushing touchdown. He added another 72 yards and two touchdowns as a pass catcher and then agreed to a partnership with the Giants in the offseason to provide a cheaper backup option to Saquon Barkley.
2022 Recap
By bringing in Breida on last spring, the Giants showed they were ready to nix a dangerous pattern surrounding adding veteran backup ball carriers to their roster.
In previous offseasons, Big Blue fell victim to the mistake of quelling their sense of urgency to acquire an experienced backup rusher by pouncing on free agents with overpriced, multiyear contracts. Whether it was Johnathan Stewart in 2018 or Devontae Booker in 2021, the organization sold itself into deeper financial ruin only to receive moderate to slightly effective production in return.
With the arrival of general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, the Giants decided it was enough putting themselves further into salary cap hell for the sake of a more obvious player.
They went out and recruited Breida, who had ties to Daboll from playing under his system in Buffalo and averaged 4.9 yards per carry and 8.8 yards per reception with seven touchdowns, and resurrected his production to offer themselves a much cheaper contributor for the 2022 season.
Appearing in all 17 games for New York, Breida rushed 54 times for 220 yards (4.1 average) and one touchdown, nearly doubling his output from the previous fall as the Bills’ third-string ball carrier. He also participated in the passing attack in short yardage snaps to include another 20 receptions on 25 targets for 118 yards (5.9 average) to his resume.
The efforts pushed his career numbers over 2,500 yards rushing, 845 yards receiving, and an average play between 4.8 and 8.2 yards per and raised his scoring total to 14 red zone visits in six seasons.
Breida was never a high-volume producer on a game-to-game basis, instead supplying the Giants’ offense with a handful of touches every Sunday to help give Barkley an occasional breather and convert the necessary downs with his speed to advance the drive.
His best performance came in Week 17 against the Colts when he ran nine times for 59 yards (6.6 average) and added a lone reception for eight yards to help the Giants clinch their playoff berth. The most single-game touches by the veteran came a week later in the regular season finale against Philadelphia, with 11 for a total of 40 yards in the 22-16 defeat.
On the postseason stage, his first since 2019 with San Francisco, Breida was quiet in the 31-24 Wild Card win over the Minnesota Vikings with just three rushes for eight yards. In the following round against the Eagles, he posted four carries for 23 yards and a touchdown and added one catch for 19 yards to prevent a shutout in an embarrassing 38-7 loss for the Giants.
GIANTS UFA PRIMERS: QB Daniel Jones | IOL Nick Gates | RB Saquon Barkley | C Jon Feliciano | IDL Justin Ellis
Why the Giants Should Keep Him
If they elect to keep Breida for at least the 2023 season, the Giants should feel confident they could retain him for a fairly inexpensive rental again.
The front office doesn’t appear determined to dole out significant cap space to the running back position, except for starter Saquon Barkley. If they can land a responsible deal with him, the pressure won’t be on the Giants to pour increased, overpriced payouts on another free agent to keep their backfield from deteriorating.
Breida’s production over the past few seasons hasn’t done enough to warrant him earning a multiyear contract with any NFL franchise, hence his pattern of one-year agreements since departing San Francisco. However, there are still some good measurables to his game that could benefit the Giants’ offense moving forward.
He does a solid job moving the pigskin when his name is called upon and churching extra yardage in the trenches. Along with averaging 4.8 and 8.2 yards on the ground and in the air throughout his NFL tenure, Breida has collected 1,351 yards and an average of 2.6 after contact. His numbers in these areas finished at 157 yards and an average of 2.91 after a hit at the end of the 2022 campaign.
In terms of schemes, the 27-year-old has been deployed in both zone and inside gap rushing setups, but the former is his larger and more fruitful attack. Breida’s total snaps sit at 332 for zone runs after he added 22 more this fall, and through the scheme, he has garnered 63 missed tackles forced, 75 runs of 10+ yards, 805 breakaway plays (32.2% average of snaps), and a long rush ranging from 18 to 83 yards.
Lastly, Breida brings a hidden element of thriving in designed running plays. Since 2017, he has had 32 designed runs of at least 15+ yards and has taken them to 2,501 designed yards, including at least 220 yards in five of his six seasons. These runs have helped Breida collect his 112 total first downs and the breakaway plays.
Why the Giants Shouldn’t Keep Him
Two reasons for the New York Giants to move on from Breida after one season: his age and the decline of his annual production.
Turning 28 years old at the end of February, Breida is approaching the time marker where a running back’s value begins to head for the bottom shelf. As a result, most NFL teams would think twice before handing these players a multiyear contract with the concerns, injuries, and availability looming. Breidahas never missed more than seven games in a single season, but his positioning on an organization’s depth chart has fallen with time closer to the wrong side of 30.
Putting that aside, the Georgia Southern product’s numbers on the playing field have decreased since he left the 49ers at the end of the 2020 season. After posting three consecutive years with over 100 rushes that totaled over 1,900 rushing yards and six touchdowns, including his career-high outing in 2018, Breida has failed to surpass 300 yards in a single campaign and has only reached payday five times, including once in the postseason.
While he can move the football at a larger average when he gets touches, the Giants need their offensive depth to step up on a collective basis if they’re going to challenge the premier units in the league next season. It’s expected they’ll juice the strength of the other positions in free agency or the draft to meet this goal. Still, if they don’t perceive Breida as an asset who can do that, it’s possible they can part ways with him, look for another cheap option, or experience with Gary Brightwell.
Keep or Dump?
Browsing through the list of available unrestricted free agents at the running back position, there is a decent selection of players whom the Giants could target should they choose to depart from Breida.
Some of these names–such as Alexander Mattison, Devin Singletary, and Kenyan Drake– are ball carriers at a younger age who’ve had better production over the past few seasons than Breida and have been riding off short-commitment, low-impact contracts.
Looking down his NFL resume, Breidahas been a solid contributor for winning teams and offered quality intangibles to New York’s offense. However, the franchise must decipher what pieces will empower them towards a more efficient unit that competes statistically each week in a league that depends more than ever on scoring than in the olden days of gap-stuffing defense.
Breida is getting closer to the wrong side of 30, and it doesn’t appear like his production will meet that description. The Giants should look elsewhere, but don’t expect a dismissal to be the swan song on Breida’s playing career.
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