By Elijah SilvermanÂ
Matt Breida is the Buffalo Bills first year running back. He is a very fast player and would give everyone’s team at least one big play a game. He is not only a speedster, but he is also a great underdog story. Now though, the Bills need to find out if they struck gold or if they are playing with pyrite (fools gold). Matt Breida is number 22 on the Bills, and he has been amazing over the past couple of weeks for them. In Breida’s career he has been a great back who can’t catch a break.
Matt Breida played high school football at Nature Coast Technical HS, and he is from Brandon, Florida. Breida was born February 28, 1995. He has been a very athletic player on the football field from day one despite the fact that he only went to a small D1 school called Georgia Southern. He was a key player there. He ran for 3740 yards in 3 seasons, but because of a slow junior year where he only ran for 646 yards, he went undrafted. You have to wonder if he had stayed for a senior year, if he would have been drafted in the top 3 rounds based on what he did his first two seasons in college. On the other hand if he stayed and was bad you have to wonder if he would even be in the NFL right now.
In Matt Breida’s career he has been far from great, but everywhere he goes he helps out a team in some way or another. He played three full seasons with the 49ers, and in his second year he had 814 yards running for 3 TDs and then he signed a one year contract with the Dolphins and had 254 yards and 0 TDs which would normally have marked the end of a pretty bad career. However, Breida got one more chance with the Bills, and he wasn’t doing well. Breida may have had some big games, but the one that has all the fans talking is the Thanksgiving game against the Saints. He ran 9 times for 26 yards which isn’t that good. He did receive the ball 2 times for 29 yards and 1 TD, but that isn’t great either. However, one thing that stands out to me is that he received for very close to 15 yards per reception, which is good. In other games, like the Colts game, he ran for 51 yards on 5 carries which is about 10 yards per carry. There is one constant between his receiving and running stats: he averages a first down every time he touches the ball. That is an amazing number and I believe that is why he is still in the NFL today.
Matt Breida has had a very average career but the question is whether he is fools gold or real gold, as he is very close to a breakout game. He could be a superstar in a couple of years or out of league. We will just have to wait and see.
