Matt Breida

Matt Breida

 •#36 RB
 •Junior (redshirt)
 •Georgia Southern
 •Height: 5-10
 •Weight: 190 lbs.
 •DOB: 2/28/95



  Statistics:

Rushing:
2013 = Redshirted
2014 = 171 for 1485 yards 17 TD
2015 = 203 for 1608 yards 17 TD

Receiving:
2013 = Redshirted
2014 = 8 rec for 97 yards 1 TD
2015 = 3 rec for 6 yards 0 TD

Matt Breida had a huge 2014 season for Georgia Southern. In 2015, Breida showed that his 2014 season was no fluke. I don’t think anyone thought he could repeat his 8.7 yards per carry and 17 TDs from 2014 but he didn’t drop much. His 7.9 YPC was still the most by a player with triple-digit carries. Breida is a smaller running back so I am not sure anyone will ever view him as a workhorse but he could be a really good change of pace back if ends up with a good landing spot.

 Here is tape from 2014 against GT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg3h5rxVBm4 The first thing that sticks out is Breida is one of the fastest players on the field if not the fastest. He just runs by the entire Georgia Tech defense and you can see that about 30 seconds into the clip.

 Breida is an extremely fast player with what looks like 4.4 speed and can maintain it throughout long runs. The big play ability with this kid is just absurd. Again just 30 seconds into the tape against App State https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jxdw5Pszsw He seriously has the potential to take the ball to the house every time he touches it. If you checked out the game logs from 2014 and 2015 he has 12 games with a rush over 50 yards. Breida seems to just run by everyone even defenders that have the angle on him and they still can’t make the tackle.

 If you didn’t know this yet Georgia Southern runs an option offense with read and speed option which helps Breida get to the outside a lot easier. Georgia Southern likes using him out on the exterior and no one can stop it. It is one of those things where you know it is coming but most cannot stop him. He is too good. The problems start to arise when Georgia Southern plays a much more superior team. After the 2014 coming out party for Breida, I drafted him in a devy league that offseason. (Side note: if you are reading this and aren’t part of a devy dynasty league please go find one) I was so pumped to watch Breida in 2015 and their first game that year was against WVU and it was on ESPN. So I was pumped to watch my newly drafted prospect from a small school. Well I was disappointed. West Virginia completely dominated Georgia Southern and Breida never really seemed to get going and since Georgia Southern got down so big so early (44-0 final) Breida didn’t play the whole game. Breida went 17/70 in that game and it was surely not the 8.7 yards per carry that he had during his breakout season. Looking at the tape from this game Breida played very well and Georgia Southern just got man handled. Breida displayed good vision, the ability to break some tackles although not bust them for huge yardage like he typically does. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/matt-breida-vs-west-virginia-2015/ All in all this game showed a little bit of a tougher side from Breida and I was pleased about that. Breida also had two stellar pass protections where his Quarterback would have been annihilated if he didn’t step up and fill the hole. Yes, one was called as a chop block but it isn’t a chop block. Breida makes first contact with the player long before the second Georgia Southern player engages the defender above the waist. Again the same issues arise against Georgia and I firmly believe that this is because Georgia is bigger and faster than Georgia Southern and not because Breida isn’t good. http://draftbreakdown.com/video/matt-breida-vs-georgia-2015/ He has a good game but his stats don’t reflect that. At the 1:17 mark he displays great elusiveness, speed, vision and is able to turn absolutely nothing into nearly a touchdown.

 I started to hit on this but one problem with Breida is he avoids contact and leans on his speed too much in order to go around defenders. He also really isn’t a power back so he lacks the strength to really move the pile but he does tend to bounce off of tackles and escape from the pile but he typically just tries to avoid it. A lot of his ability to break tackles comes from the fact that he never stops his feet. He seems to always twitch or spin out of a tackle. Time for some HIGHLIGHT VIDEO! You can watch the whole thing if you’d like but I am solely looking at 1 run that I couldn’t find anywhere else I saw a replay of it somewhere and couldn’t remember where but it is here at the 2:15 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcNzsKeapy0 Even though he isn’t a power back that breaks tackles he still finds a way to get through the pile.

 Breida makes a lot of plays and he improved on his vision from 2014 to 2015. He has really good patience and ability to find a hole and explode through it. He also has a second gear that you have probably seen in all the tape by now that allows him to break away from defenders. He very rarely is caught from behind. He is a stat sheet stuffer for Georgia Southern. Here is a massive game against WMU, who is not a bad team. I focused on WMU earlier with Corey Davis but here they are on the wrong side of things against Georgia Southern and Matt Breida. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip_mJhmh8E4 Breida went for 11/176/4 in a rout 43-17. 70 of Breida’s yards came on 1 play showcasing his big play ability and pure speed again.

 I believe Breida has a chance to lead the NCAA in rushing in 2016. Projecting him to the NF is difficult since I think a lot of how well he does will be based on where he lands. However, he is a great athlete with good vision and is a playmaker.



  NFL Comparison: I’m not sure on this one. (Maybe throw me your comp) I want to keep comparing him to a Jonathan Dwyer or a Jerick McKinnon who ran the same offense in college. But Breida is faster than both and is not as big as Dwyer. He is similar to McKinnon since they played at the same school and Breida will have the exact same knock against him. The option offense ran by Georgia Southern basically sets up for Breida getting limited catches from the backfield and McKinnon had this same issue.