Can Jeremiyah Love be what Tony Dorsett was to the 1977 Cowboys? (Transcript with All-22 Highlights)
The Football Film Room Show - Episode #26 Part 2
Why the Cardinals Make Sense
And it’s because of that reason and because of the versatility that he brings that I don’t think you look at him and say, well, he’s a running back, and he’s only a running back, and that position we don’t want to draft third overall, fourth overall, fifth overall, too many cautionary tales.
And to that, I just say, with a player like Love, you have to throw that out the window. I agree that with any other draft class, if you just have your standard running backs coming out in the draft, you don’t just take a guy because he’s the best running back in the top-10 or whatever.
But with a player like Love, because of what he can do for an offense, because of the ways he can elevate it, because of the versatility he brings, which is so important on both sides of the ball in today’s NFL, I don’t think you should just view him as a running back. You should view him as a versatile weapon for your offense.
And by the way, this isn’t just my opinion. I think the general consensus is that most around the NFL view Love in the same way.
I think you can certainly look at the Saints and the Chiefs who are picking 8th and 9th in this year’s draft. Both were in the market for running backs. If they thought Jeremiyah Love was going to drop all the way to them, you wouldn’t have seen them go out and sign Travis Etienne, Kenneth Walker.
So I do think he’s going to go early, and it’s just a matter of, does he get out of the top-5, really?
Because if we’re going through the draft here, we know the Raiders are going to pick Fernando Mendoza number one. The Jets have Breece Hall. Franchise tagged him. Doesn’t seem like a situation where they’ll tag and then trade him. It seems like they want him around for the long haul, at very least for the start of 2026.
So that leaves the third overall pick, the Arizona Cardinals. And you haven’t really heard a lot of connections between the Cardinals and Love. I don’t know if that’s because people just don’t want that to happen. No one seems to want the good players to go to the Cardinals and just fade into anonymity out in the desert.
Most of the talk has been about the Titans taking Love with the fourth overall pick or the Giants getting Love with the fifth overall pick. But To me, if you’re the Cardinals, why wouldn’t you take Love?
Mike LaFleur is the head coach there. As we all know, LaFleur views the run game as foundational to his offense.
So who better to be the first draft pick of his tenure in Arizona than Jeremiyah Love? And especially for the Cardinals, who last year were 31st in rushing yards per game.
I know they lost James Conner early in the season to injury, and injuries in general definitely played a role, but their leading rusher last year had 333 yards. So they could use an every-down back, believe me.