Be wary of Love's rushing yard totals
Drew Dinsick breaks down Jeremiyah Love's unideal situation with the Cardinals and explains why Arizona's schedule and roster could hinder the rookie's chances to record huge rushing games in 2026.
Video Transcript
Drew, one of the more controversial decisions during the NFL draft was the Cardinals taking Jeremiah Love, a running back, at three.
But he is super dynamic and one of the more proven backs coming into the league that we've seen in a minute.
He will share the backfield, though, with James Connor and Tyler Allgeier at least a little bit.
Plus, the team has a ton of weapons already like Trey McBride, like Marvin Harrison Jr., like Michael Wilson, who had a great year last year.
And so given all of this murkiness, let's talk about his prospects for his regular season.
Rushing yards, how do you see the opportunity for him in Arizona?
Yeah, he's obviously a special player.
The problem is this is not a special team.
Right now, the market rates them as a minus seven.
I agree they are about the 32nd ranked team in the NFL as far as the neutral power rating goes.
Jacoby Brissett not guaranteed to be your week one starter as he is currently under contract negotiations to get a, a pay raise.
But, even with all those weapons, if you have the, you know, kind of a minus situation at quarterback and an un- unknown situation at offensive coordinator, you're gonna have a difficult time scoring points.
And you know why that matters is because your schedule is the hardest in the NFL by margin.
They start out with the Chargers, the Seahawks, the Niners, a, a slight replie- reprieve at the Giants where they are seven-point dogs, Detroit, the Rams, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, the Rams again, KC.
Like they're- I know this team does not come up for air until way late in the season where they have a couple of games where they're small dogs to the likes of the Jets and the Raiders.
They're, it, d- because they are such significant underdogs, they are gonna be in a negative game state constantly this season, and that is not a good sign if you are expecting to have a, a surprisingly good performance from your running back.
Because pretty much every second half that the Cardinals are gonna face, until we get to December, they are probably going to be down a touchdown and trying to throw themselves back into the game.
That's if the plan is even to win.
Like, it's pretty clear that this team is a quarterback away.
They intend to be at the top of next year's draft and draft that quarterback.
And so without, with all this uncertainty in terms of whether they're likely to compete and how often they are going to be at a disadvantaged game state, there is no world where I am laying any type of price on Jeremiah Love to kind of hit the upside of his potential.
If you want to, you know, kind of put, squirrel this one away for, you know, a 2027 bet, when they actually have a quarterback and are competing with an easier schedule, fine with me.
But I think the realistic, expectation for Jeremiah Love is somewhere in the 800 yards rushing range, and it's entirely because their schedule just does not afford him any air this year.
