Breida has pride in his need for speed
Forget those 40-yard dash times recorded during combine season because that’s not real football.
And players can propose all the 60- and 100-meter races they would like.
Matt Breida takes pride in his reigning title as the NFL’s fastest player, and if a challenger wants to take the crown from him they’ll need to suit up in their pads and gear, grab a football, and maybe then he’ll consider a race.
Or better yet, produce a big play on the field that’s faster than what the Miami Dolphins’ newest tailback has delivered the past two seasons.
That’s the only way Breida intends on relinquishing his throne as the NFL’s fastest player the past two seasons, which was an honor given to him by NFL’s Next Gen Stats, an analytics company affiliated with the NFL, which clocks each players on-field performance.
“You guys know the answer to this question. You guys see the NextGen stats for the past two years,” Breida said, referring to the 22.3 miles-per-hour speed he was timed with in 2019 and the 22.03 speed he had in 2018, according to Next Gen Stats.
Both were the fastest times posted by a skill position player, which subsequently gives Breida the right to boast he’s the NFL’s fastest player.
“I always get this question. Until someone beats my time, beats me out, I’m still the fastest guy,” said Breida, who averaged 5.0 yards per carry on the 381 attempts he had with the San Francisco 49ers during his first three seasons.
Breida, who the Dolphins traded a 2020 fifth-round pick to acquire, is expected to be the lightning portion of the Dolphins’ thunder-and-lightning style backfield, serving as complimentary piece with Jordan Howard, a veteran tailback Miami signed this offseason.
Their styles complement one another well because Howard is a physical style zone runner, who has a reputation for wearing out
defenses with between the tackles runs.
Breida carved out an NFL role for himself as an undrafted rookie from Georgia Southern by breaking big runs for the 49ers.
He’s notoriously known as a hard worker, an efficient pass catcher — 67 career receptions, which he’s turned into 561 yards and four touchdowns — and a playmaker defenders rarely catch when he’s reached his full stride.
“I remember watching Matt in college. He used to bust a whole lot of runs, long runs,” Howard said. “He’s very dynamic. He takes it to the house. He’s a very explosive player. I can’t wait to see how he helps the team out.”
The Dolphins will likely employ the same approach with the backfield that New England has had the past few years. Miami will likely use a tailback-by-committee approach, utilizing the players based on their strengths and weaknesses unless someone clearly separates themselves from the pack.
That means someone will likely serve as a zone runner, gaining the tough yardage, while another will handle the pass-catching specialist role, which usually goes to tailback sets.
“A running game is definitely a quarterback’s best friend. It makes our job a lot handling the snaps in three-receiver
easier,” said quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who led the Dolphins in rushing last season, with 243 yards and four touchdowns on 54 carries. “There aren’t a whole lot of things that we can be certain of this year, but I would put a lot of money on me not being the leading rusher.”
Fitzpatrick points out that new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey prides himself in being able to establish an effective rushing attack, and the Dolphins rebuilt last year’s offensive line by signing Ereck Flowers and Ted Karras as free agents and selecting Austin Jackson, Robert Hunt and Solomon Kindley early in the 2020 draft.
“It looked like we wanted to bring in some beef up front and even just looking at some of these young guys, they’re very impressive,” Fitzpatrick continued. “We’ll see physically where they are, and mentally how they can grasp [the offense].”
How the offensive line performs will dictate whether Breida, who will be playing on a restricted tender that pays him $3.25 million, and the rest of Miami’s tailbacks have room to work. But the NFL’s fastest player doesn’t seem too concerned.
“I’m just trying to be an all-around complete running back and prove to everyone that I can be an every-down back,” said Breida.