Jeremiyah Love is widely considered to be one of the best overall prospects in the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back has apparently been gaining interest from the Arizona Cardinals, who currently own the third overall pick. ESPN’s Jordan Rodgers pushed back against the idea, explaining why it would be a bad decision.
Cardinals Criticized for Considering Jeremiyah Love with Third Overall Pick
The Cardinals have officially entered a rebuilding phase after moving on from quarterback Kyler Murray and head coach Jonathan Gannon, among others, during the 2026 NFL offseason. This makes the upcoming draft extremely important for the franchise’s future as they look to add the appropriate building blocks.
Many reports have indicated that they may be considering Love with their first selection this year, which is currently the third overall pick.
In a segment on ESPN’s “Get Up,” Rodgers outlined why this would be a bad idea considering their situation right now, and also disputed his overall outlook as a running back prospect.
“Under no circumstances can you take Jeremiyah Love at number three,” Rodgers said. “You’re going to owe him $50 million in guaranteed money… You can’t do that, especially when you don’t have a quarterback.”
“You can’t expect to then take the next step with a running back, it doesn’t happen,” Rodgers added. “Also, he’s not a generational player. If you go back and look at [him] in college, he didn’t do great against the best defenses that he played against.”
“Under no circumstance can you take Jeremiyah Love number three. … He’s not a generational player.”@JRodgers11 doesn’t believe Jeremiyah Love should go high in the draft 👀 pic.twitter.com/c7ycy7dAp0
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) April 23, 2026
Rodgers described how Love struggled mightily against the Ohio State Buckeyes and Miami Hurricanes, among others, and then went on to beat up on inferior teams as his collegiate career progressed. He pointed to this as the main reason why he doesn’t view the Notre Dame superstar as a “generational” talent at the position.
PFSN’s CFB RB Impact Metric for last season would appear to support his theory, as Love finished just fourth among running backs with an impact score of 92.4, despite being at the top of PFSN’s Big Board for the position.
This suggests that while Love may be an elite prospect, he might not be worth such a high pick, especially for a rebuilding team.
The past two running backs to be selected inside the top ten overall picks, Bijan Robinson and Ashton Jeanty, both topped the RBi rankings prior to being drafted. This could potentially be a red flag as Rodgers advises the Cardinals to go in a different direction with their premium pick.
