Jeremiyah Love is Fantasy Football's newest crush: How Cardinals draft pick affects RB landscape
Here's the Fantasy fallout from the Cardinals selection of Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 overall pick
The Cardinals couldn't resist Jeremiyah Love's speed, or his balance, or his agility, or his hands, or anything else. The Notre Dame superstar was taken with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Last year he turned 199 carries into 1,372 yards (6.9 yards per rush) with 18 touchdowns with a 27-280-3 receiving line. That was an improvement -- barely -- on his 2024 numbers: 163 carries for 1,125 yards (6.9 yards per rush) with 17 touchdowns with a 28-237-2 receiving line. You couldn't ask for better consistency.
Love's 4.36 time in the 40-yard dash speaks for itself, but it's his instant acceleration that really stands out on film. Love's got the rare trait to bust into top speed with any step he takes, making him a dangerous weapon for the Cardinals to deploy all over the field. He's got good lateral agility and patience, and especially good balance and toughness to help him pick up maximum yardage from play to play. He showed off natural hands and potential to be a very good pass protector. Love genuinely is among the top running back prospects we've seen over the past five years.
What keeps Love from being a perfect prospect? He's a tad undersized, but obviously the Cardinals don't care. His numbers may have been a little bit inflated by the Fighting Irish's quality offensive line, but that comes with the territory for running backs. And, maybe this is a little bit concerning: Love rarely played more than 70% of the snaps for Notre Dame.
Expect him to play right around that average right away. The Cardinals signed bruiser Tyler Allgeier this offseason but he's averaged south of four yards per rush in two of his past three years. The Cards also restructured James Conner's contract, but he's 31 years old and coming back from injury. Those guys will take Love off the field at least a little bit in 2026, but it shouldn't be enough to downgrade Love's Fantasy value. He should be the Cardinals feature back.
The larger issue is the offensive line, which returns three starters, including quality left tackle Paris Johnson, and added left guard Isaac Seumalo. It's not a great front five at this point, and anyone who watched Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton run behind depleted offensive lines last season knows that could be an issue. Remember -- Love ran behind a great O-line at Notre Dame.
That said, good luck expecting Love to come at a discount on Draft Day no matter the format of your league.
FIVE PLAYS: Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame
— #AskFFT (@daverichard) April 1, 2026
1. Love bursts into open space as soon as he sees it, then cuts incredibly quickly as soon as the space is gone because defenders show up. Then repeats the process again as he escapes out the front door & outruns everybody, barreling… pic.twitter.com/dg7qTEQ1Mg
I think we'll see Love settle in as a top-20 pick in PPR redraft leagues. It's been a while since we've seen rookie running backs pop off right away and Love does have some impediments. I could see myself drafting him ahead of Saquon Barkley and Kenneth Walker III, but not ahead of Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton -- assuming both of those guys' teams add offensive line help before August. I'd expect Love to be a late Round 1 pick in half- and non-PPR leagues where running backs carry more value.
He's gonna go a lot sooner than that in every other format. Dynasty leagues? Forget it, he'll be the 1.01 in rookie-only drafts even in Superflex/two-QB formats (unless the manager at 1.01 is painfully desperate for a quarterback). And he'll be potentially a top-five pick in Dynasty start-ups and long-term keeper league drafts.
