The Buffalo Bills are adding a little speed to their roster, signing running back Matt Breida to a one-year contract. The team announced the move on Thursday afternoon.
Breida, entering his fifth pro season, spent the first three with the San Francisco 49ers and the last season with the Miami Dolphins. His best year came in 2018, when he started 13 games for the 49ers. That year Breida amassed 1,075 yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns, rushing for 5.3 yards per carry and 8.4 yards per target.
In 2020, the 49ers signed Breida to a second-round RFA tender, worth $3.3 million, then traded him to the Dolphins at the end of April. He fell into a shuffled backfield that featured, at times, Myles Gaskin, Salvon Ahmed, and Jordan Howard. Breida only started one game of the 12 he played. He carried 59 times for 254 yards and caught nine passes for 96 yards.
Breida’s calling card is his explosiveness. He had a 4.39 40-yard dash and a 42” vertical leap at his pro day workout, and his career features an 83-yard run and a 66-yard run in addition to five more runs of at least 30 yards. With those seven instances on 440 total attempts, he’s been way more explosive than Devin Singletary and Zack Moss, who have combined for three 30+ yard runs on 419 carries in their careers.
At the same time, Singletary and Moss are still the unquestioned lead backs on the team. Breida might be slotting into the same role that T.J. Yeldon served on last year’s team, or he might just be a camp body. That can’t be measured until training camp begins. Along with Breida, Singletary, and Moss, the Bills also re-signed Taiwan Jones (mainly for special teams work), and they have Christian Wade and Antonio Williams on the roster too.