San Francisco 49ers: Is Kyle Shanahan saving Matt Breida for playoff run?

San Francisco 49ers running back Matt Breida hasn’t received a lot of field time to close out the regular season, prompting the idea Kyle Shanahan is saving him for the playoffs.

There was a bit of an anomaly towards the tail end of the San Francisco 49ers‘ 2019 regular-season campaign: running back Matt Breida, who was such an offensive force the year prior, was nary a factor in some of the Niners’ most crucial games en route to securing both the NFC West and top seed in the conference for the playoffs.

Breida was slowed a bit in Week 15 against the Atlanta Falcons, getting four carries for just 11 yards in the loss. And he was on the field for just 12 snaps (19 percent), which marked the same usage he saw the week before in New Orleans against the Saints.

In Week 16 against the Los Angeles Rams, however, Breida saw zero snaps. To round out the regular season against the Seattle Seahawks, the third-year pro saw just eight snaps (16 percent), four carries for 16 yards.

“We didn’t go in not planning for him to not have any plays on offense. It just worked out that way,” Shanahan said of Breida after the win over Los Angeles, via NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco. “Went through a little bit of a lull in the third quarter where we had a number of 3-and-outs, so it was tough to sub him in. We didn’t have any long drives. The runs that the other two guys did get, they were being effective. It was nothing against Matt. Just unfortunate how the game worked out for him.”

There are three ways to look at this, including Shanahan’s comments.

The first is the obvious: Breida is being outplayed by one of his fellow running backs, Raheem Mostert, who ultimately led the 49ers in 2019 with 772 rush yards and eight touchdowns. Yet that doesn’t quite explain why another running back, Tevin Coleman, is getting more looks down the stretch over Breida.

Coleman never saw more than five carries in the five games to close out the year.

Another possibility is Breida somehow ended up in Shanahan’s proverbial “doghouse” — an area where second-year wide receiver Dante Pettis found himself after such a promising rookie campaign a year ago.

But Shanahan wasn’t shy about calling Pettis out earlier this year, something the head coach hasn’t done at all in regards to Breida. So, while this is certainly a possibility, it’s not exactly a set reason, either.

There’s another, much more reasonable possibility, though. Perhaps Shanahan is saving Breida for San Francisco’s playoff run.

Despite rushing for nearly 200 fewer yards in 2019, Breida still averaged north of 5 yards per carry this season, which was only 0.2 yards less than his remarkable 5.3 yards per attempt a season ago. But last season, just like this one, Breida has regularly dealt with nagging injuries, which have limited his production and also allowed Mostert to take center stage in the second half.

Simply put, it’s not beyond reason to assume Shanahan is simply saving Breida for the 49ers’ campaign through the playoffs, which starts against the Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round.

Minnesota allowed opponents an average of 4.3 rush yards per attempt during the regular season, which ranked 19th best. Given the Vikings have a prolific pass rush, tied with the Niners with 48 sacks in 2019, one can see how getting the ground game going early and often in this round could be crucial for Shanahan and Co.

Perhaps that’s where Breida comes into play.

If he does, fans will witness it when the 49ers and Vikings kick off on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 4:35 p.m. ET from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.