Jeremiyah Love Fantasy Value With Arizona Cardinals

As had been rumored in the week before the draft, the Arizona Cardinals made the move to select Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 pick in the 2026 Draft.

Let's look at the fantasy football outlook for Love in Arizona, both for seasonal leagues and Dynasty formats.

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Jeremiyah Love Fantasy Value With the Arizona Cardinals

As a 19-year-old sophomore in 2024, Love was given the keys to the Notre Dame backfield, and he delivered on all of the expectations he had as the top running back recruit entering college.

That season, Love turned 191 touches into 1,362 total yards (7.1 yards per touch) and 19 touchdowns.

Following that breakout, Love came back this past season at age 20 and produced 1,652 yards and 21 scores on 226 touches (7.3 yards per touch).

He rushed for 6.9 yards per carry in each of his two seasons as the lead back.

Love led this running back class with 4.2 yards after contact per rush.

This past season, Love did that with only 35.2% of his rushes coming against light boxes (six or fewer defenders), the lowest rate in the class.

When Love faced those light boxes, he punished them with a gaudy 9.1 yards per attempt.

That led the country this past season.

For some added context, going back to the last decade of early-round running backs, Love’s 9.1 YPC against light boxes is by far the highest in his final season.

Ashton Jeanty posted 8.0 YPC against light boxes in his final season, which was the most by a first-round running back over the past decade.

Love cleared him by over a full yard on those attempts.

Of course, Love may not get to see many light box runs in the NFL.

In turn, 25.1% of Love’s runs came against heavy boxes (2nd highest in this class) since everyone knew he was getting the ball.

Against those loaded boxes, Love posted 5.0 YPC, which was second in this class.

When hit at or behind the line of scrimmage, Love averaged 2.5 yards per carry (2nd) and forced a missed tackle on 32.5% of those runs, the highest rate in the class.

When Love gets into space, he is electric.

He averaged a robust 10.0 yards per rush when he was contacted beyond the line of scrimmage.

Not only did that lead all running backs in this class, but that was also the highest yards per rush on runs hit beyond the line of scrimmage for a back with 100-plus attempts over the past 10 years.

I do not believe Love out of the box is as good a pass catcher as Reggie Bush or Jahmyr Gibbs were entering the NFL (players whom Love is frequently compared to), but he has a solid foundation in that area to build on as he enters the league.

Love caught 28 and 27 passes in each of his two seasons as the starter.

In 2025, Love was targeted on 22.2% of his routes (second in the class) and posted 1.83 yards per route run (third).

Love also finished with the fifth-highest grade in pass protection in this class per Pro Football Focus in 2025.

Apply any grains of salt you have to, but Love is a willing player in protection.

We did not see Love do much at the NFL Combine, but he did run a 4.36 40-yard dash at 6-foot-0 and 212 pounds.

That 96th-percentile speed score was more than he needed to cement himself as the premier back in this draft class.

No prospect is without odds to fail in the NFL, but Love truly checks every box.

He is young, athletic, and hyper-productive.

He is a complete player who can be inserted into an offense tomorrow as a foundational component.

If there is anything to really try and tear down with Love, he has a leaner build and has not yet handled a massive workload.

That may be the case for him in year one, given Tyler Allgeier and James Conner on the roster as backs capable of operating as clashers.

The Arizona backfield was a complete mash unit in 2025.

No Arizona running back carried the ball 100 times during the season, with Michael Carter leading the team with 92 rushes.

James Conner played three games before suffering a foot injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Conner will turn 31 this May, staying with the team on a one-year restructured contract.

Trey Benson only made it one game further into the season.

Benson suffered a meniscus injury in Week 4 and never returned.

Through two seasons in the league, Benson has 111 touches for 574 yards (5.2 yards per touch).

He still has two years remaining on his rookie contract.

Bam Knight ended up second on the team in rushing attempts (82) and touches (104), turning those opportunities into 429 total yards and 5 touchdowns.

Knight was also retained on a one-year contract.

Arizona added Tyler Allgeier at the start of free agency, inking him to a two-year contract.

Allgeier has been one of the league’s most effective early down backs since he entered the league.

Among 56 running backs with 300-plus attempts since he was drafted, Allgeier’s 42% success rate ranks 7th.

He has a first down on touchdown on 25.3% of his runs over that span, also 7th.

The limitations are that he has not been overly explosive (his 9.8% explosive run rate ranks 37th) while he was not played much in the passing game.

Allgeier played 27.7% of the passing snaps on his rookie deal with Atlanta, with no more than 18 receptions in any season.

Allgeier must be experiencing déjà vu after the Falcons selected Bijan Robinson 9th overall, following Allgeier's 1,174 yards as a rookie.

With Love landing in Arizona following a year in which Ashton Jeanty let down fantasy gamers at his draft cost on a bad football team, there will surely be some pause with Love carrying Round 1-Round 2 redraft capital on a roster with more competition.

Since 2010, here are the rookie running backs who have been selected as the RB15 or higher.

That said, Love is still ready to be used in a Bijan Robinson-esque fashion out of the box.

Like Robinson, I expect him to be used enough to deliver fantasy points, with the runway to offer a higher ceiling via a larger workload than median projections expect.

Then, in 2027, moving forward, we have plenty of runway to be a front-end fantasy back.

For re-draft purposes, he is more of an upside RB1/RB2 and a front-end dynasty asset out of the packaging.