New York Giants running back Matt Breida is expected to start against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night in Week 3, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.
Breida is set to lead the backfield with Saquon Barkley (ankle) unavailable, but the Giants are also expected to use Gary Brightwell and Eric Gray. Daniel Jones could see an uptick in designed runs as well. Breida has a tough matchup in what will likely be a negative game script on the road, but he could benefit from checkdowns and garbage time.
Breida is the RB38 in numberFire's Week 3 rankings. He has an $11,000 salary on Thursday's single-game slate and our models project him for 7.0 FanDuel points, with 10.0 carries, 44.8 rushing yards, 1.2 receptions, 8.2 receiving yards, and 0.25 touchdowns. Brightwell ($7,500) is projected for 7.5 touches and 4.8 FanDuel points. The 49ers’ pass defense and overall defense both rank in the top-five based on numberFire’s opponent-adjusted NEP model, but their run defense is third-worst, so the Giants may be able to find some surprise success on the ground if they can maintain a neutral game script.
Source: Jeremy Fowler, ESPN