Running back Matt Breida turned out to be wrong when he said in April that he thought the 49ers would bring back all of last season’s running backs for the 2020 campaign.
Breida wound up as the odd man out and was traded to the Dolphins during the draft in a deal that Breida said left him “kind of shocked” when he first found out. That shock has subsided and now Breida is able to take stock of his new surroundings.
The Dolphins signed Jordan Howard as a free agent, drafted Malcolm Perry in the seventh round and have Myles Gaskin and Kalen Ballage back from last season to form a group that Breida feels is similar to the one he left behind with the Niners.
“We’re all coming in there willing to compete, willing to make each other better,” Breida said on NFL Network. “That’s one thing that I learned quick in these virtual meetings with these is guys is that they’re eager to get better. That’s kinda how we were last year in the running back room in San Francisco and that’s gonna go a long way to help us get where we gotta get.”
The 49ers had the second-most rushing yards in the league last season while Dolphins were the worst in the league with 1,156 yards to show for their efforts. Adding Breida and Howard should help them improve on that front and that should help improve their chances of climbing in the standings even if they don’t match the success the 49ers found in 2019.