Jeremiyah Love ran a 4.36 40-yard dash at the combine, the second-fastest time among running backs, and the Saquon Barkley comparisons came fast behind him, with the workout framed as Love’s potential Saquon Barkley moment. The comp was never fair. That is not a knock on Love.
PFSN’s Football Debate Club asked whether the Barkley label fit. Ian Cummings and Jacob Infante landed in the same place: unfair, but Love is still very good. The disagreement isn’t about how good Love is. It’s about what kind of back he actually is.
Why the Jeremiyah Love-Saquon Barkley Comparison Doesn’t Fit
Cummings started with the body type.
“I think it’s an unfair comp, but I will say Love is still very good,” Cummings said.
“Saquon Barkley, anytime you invoke that name, you’re thinking of the quad monster, 6-foot, 233. Jeremiyah Love was just 212 at the NFL combine. He’s definitely a little bit leaner, and even at his playing weight, you can estimate Barkley has 10 to 15 pounds on him. My comp for Jeremiyah Love is Ahman Green, who played in the 2000s as a perennial Pro Bowler for the Green Bay Packers. I think that’s more the style that you’re getting. I don’t see the elite contact balance and physicality that Barkley had, but you do get that game-breaking, seam-splitting speed explosion, the toggle-and-throttle style, and the receiving versatility.”
The measurables back him up. Barkley came out of Penn State at 6-foot, 233 pounds, ran a 4.40 and posted a 41-inch vertical with 29 bench reps. He was one of only two players since 2003 to weigh 230 or more, run a sub-4.40 and clear a 40-inch vertical. That is not an archetype. That is an outlier.
Love measured 6-foot, 212 at the combine. Same height, 21 pounds lighter. He matched the speed, but he was never going to match the mass or the power that made Barkley a three-down battering ram from day one. Comparing any leaner back to that profile sets a bar almost no one clears.
Ahman Green Is the Better Comp for Jeremiyah Love
Infante made the same case from the testing numbers.
“I agree with Ian here. I don’t think it’s necessarily fair,” Infante said. “Especially the size. A similar speed, a 4.4 for Saquon coming out and a 4.36 for Love, but Barkley was doing that at 21 pounds higher. He’s 233 pounds, also 29 bench reps, a 41-inch vertical. And I think he’s a better receiving prospect as well. Love has a lot of those athletic traits, but to me, it comes down to the physicality and the receiving value. Love’s not bad in that area, but Saquon was just such a special, well-rounded prospect. Love isn’t quite as diverse in terms of what he brings to the table. Still a great player, though.”
He is right that the gap is receiving and physicality, not speed. Love’s tape is built on explosion, change of direction and work as a pass catcher, which is closer to Cummings’ Ahman Green comp than to Barkley. Green spent the 2000s as a four-time Pro Bowler and the Packers’ all-time leading rusher, a back defined by speed, big plays and screen-game value rather than brute force.
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The point isn’t that Love is a lesser prospect. Scouts have also tied him to Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson, two of the most productive young backs in the league. Love put up 7.1 yards per carry and 21 touchdowns in his final Notre Dame season and won the Doak Walker Award. The talent is real.
The Barkley comp is unfair precisely because it invites a comparison Love can only lose. Strip the name away, and you have a 212-pound back with 4.3 speed and three-down receiving chops, the kind teams now take in the top five. Host Cam Mellor scored the round a 3-3 tie, and the consensus was the right call. Love does not need to be the next Saquon Barkley. He needs to be the first Jeremiyah Love.
