As the week of the 2026 NFL draft commenced, ESPN’s Adam Schefter offered insight into the range of picks running back Jeremiyah Love could hear his name called during the first round Thursday.
According to Schefter, the Arizona Cardinals – picking third overall – are having “exploratory” calls regarding the possibility of trading down. Arizona could also pull off the first surprise of the draft, according to Schefter, by sticking at No. 3 and handing in a card with Love’s name on it.
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The Notre Dame product is considered a top-three player based on talent in the draft, with NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah putting him second in his final pre-draft rankings. Most mock drafts have him going in the top five. Love’s wait will not last long. Between the Cardinals picking third, the Tennessee Titans fourth, the New York Giants at No. 5 and the Washington Commanders seventh, Love’s professional destination is somewhat predetermined – unless another team, with perhaps a better situation for a young running back to enter, wants to move up.
“If he got past 10, it would be shocking,” Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis told USA TODAY Sports. “I think he should go in the first six picks, but if he’s there at 11, somebody needs to give all of their picks up to go up and get him, because he is a difference-maker. You can’t say that about a lot of running backs. But he is a difference maker. He is going to change the dynamics of your offense. He’s one of those guys that you go get if you have the opportunity to. And I’ll say that, in the top five, in the top six, if you have an opportunity to go up there and get him, you (should) make that decision to go up and get him, because he is going to be a guy who can change your offense.”
Jeremiyah Love and the positional value debate
As far as position-group value, no spot has been debated more in recent years than running back.
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Taking a back in the first round of the first draft became taboo, save for the elite talents, such as Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson and Ashton Jeanty. But it also worked out for the Detroit Lions, who surprised the league by selecting Jahmyr Gibbs 12th overall in 2023. The Kansas City Chiefs, picking ninth, were a popular mock draft destination for Love entering free agency; they ultimately signed reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III to a three-year deal.
Not one running back went in the first round in two of the last four drafts (2022, 2024). In 2025, the Las Vegas Raiders picked Jeanty sixth overall. He rushed for 3.7 yards per carry in an offense that finished last in scoring. A year earlier, he rushed for 2,601 rushing yards (and 29 touchdowns) in his final season at Boise State. Head coach Pete Carroll’s tenure ended after one season and the team went 3-14. Robinson went seventh overall to the Atlanta Falcons in 2023, and the Panthers snagged McCaffrey eighth overall in 2017. Robinson has yet to make the playoffs and McCaffrey advanced to the postseason once – his rookie season.
What teams picking in the top half of the first round often have to balance, though, is whether to address other parts of the roster that would, ideally, make any running back’s life easier. The Giants took Saquon Barkley second overall in 2018, only to watch him run into a brick wall at the line of scrimmage because of the front office’s inability to fully address offensive line woes – and then run all the way to a Super Bowl title once he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, who boasted a complete team and elite blocking unit.
“You don’t want to waste carries on a bad team with a running back. You want to build it up and then drop the running back in,” Jeremiah said on a conference call with reporters.
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Jeremiah said Love should be in play for the Titans at fourth overall, but he’s not the biggest fan of what Tennessee did this offseason on the offensive side of the ball. He is still OK with breaking his own rule to bring Love into the building and then worrying about addressing other parts of the roster in free agency next year.
Part of why Jeremiah is comfortable doing that, he said, is that Love can be a factor in the passing game as well.
“These running backs now are so accomplished as receivers, that they’re much more than just a running back,” said ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., who was an early adopter of passing on the first-round running back until recently. ” … You can put him slot, you can put him wide.
“I always said, you grade on ability, you don’t grade on philosophy. So yes, there would be times where if the player wasn’t multi-dimensional enough, even though it was a great, pure running back.”
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What will Jeremiyah Love bring to the team that drafts him?
Pairing Love with a young quarterback could pay dividends, Bettis said.
“I look at a team like the Washington Commanders, a team that had some success and then they took a step back,” Bettis said. “And now you say, ‘OK, let’s take some pressure off of our young quarterback.’ But if I can get a young quarterback coupled with a young running back and I’ve got a decade with these two players? Now, all of a sudden, we’ve got something really special.”
With Jayden Daniels entering his third season under center in Washington, the Commanders lack the resources to move up and would almost certainly have to hope he’s still on the board at No. 7. Tennessee could pair him with the 2025 No. 1 pick, quarterback Cam Ward, and the Giants also have a second-year signal-caller in Jaxson Dart.
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Love’s big-play ability is what the highlight reels show, Bettis said. But what separates Love from other backs, said Bettis – a former Notre Dame running back himself – is his toughness in short-yardage scenarios. Love, at 6-feet and 212 pounds, ran a 4.36 40-yard dash at the combine in March.
“When you look at a running back, how many opportunities are you gonna have to break one? Maybe once in a game, if you’re lucky. But you’ll have five opportunities to get a third-and-1, a third-and-2, and I think those are the tough yards, that when you draft a running back, yes you want him to be a gamebreaker but he has to be able to get those tough, physical yards,” said Bettis, who knows plenty about tough running between the tackles. “And a lot of times, when you have that Ferrari back there, he can’t really do that. Well, this is a young man who’s physically gifted in that he can play in between the tackles and be that physical pounder – if you need him to be.”
Whichever team turns in the card for Love will certainly need him to be both.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jeremiyah Love NFL draft projections from Mel Kiper Jr., Adam Schefter
