{"id":257214,"date":"2025-12-06T13:27:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=257214"},"modified":"2025-12-06T13:27:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:27:37","slug":"mock-draft-has-the-chiefs-taking-an-explosive-playmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/12\/06\/mock-draft-has-the-chiefs-taking-an-explosive-playmaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Mock Draft Has the Chiefs Taking an Explosive Playmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The season isn\u2019t over yet. But it\u2019s never too early to think about the NFL draft. Who could the Kansas City Chiefs take in the first round? <a  href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/article\/2026-nfl-mock-draft-30-jets-raiders-pick-qbs-at-1-2-after-trades-while-2-ohio-state-defenders-go-top-10-050102300.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yahoo Sports\u2019<\/a> Nate Tice and Charles McDonald put together a mock draft. They have the Chiefs selecting Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love 15th overall:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c15. Kansas City Chiefs &#8211; Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>FINALLY. SPEED IN THE KANSAS CITY BACKFIELD. The Chiefs&#8217; young offensive line is firmly good, if not one of the league&#8217;s best, and the group has had one of the league&#8217;s better run games this season &#8211; yes, really &#8211; no matter who has been getting the carries. What the run game has lacked for several seasons now is explosive plays coming from their backfield; <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/11\/22\/patrick-mahomes-most-important-game-chiefs-vs-colts-could-define-a-dynasty\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_self\">Patrick Mahomes<\/a> has more scrambles that have gained 12 or more yards this season than the Chiefs&#8217; running backs have rushes that gained that much. That&#8217;s Love all the way, one of the best overall players in this draft class with the ability to take any touch to the house. I know running back didn&#8217;t work out the last time the Chiefs took one in the first round, but Love would give the Chiefs an element they haven&#8217;t had in years. I&#8217;m giddy at the thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like every NFL team, the Chiefs have several draft needs. They certainly need defensive linemen who can complement <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/11\/25\/chris-jones-chiefs-defense\/\" target=\"_self\">Chris Jones<\/a>. But they could also use an offensive weapon like Love.<\/p>\n<h2>Mock Draft Has the Chiefs Taking Running Back Jeremiyah Love<\/h2>\n<h3>Love\u2019s Career Thus Far<\/h3>\n<p>Jeremiyah Love attended Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis. During his senior year, he rushed for 1,291 yards and 22 touchdowns. He also caught 13 passes for 370 yards and five touchdowns.<sup id=\"cite_ref-SI_3-1\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Love received college offers from schools like Michigan, Oregon, and Texas A&amp;M. Yet, he committed to Notre Dame. During his first collegiate season, he recorded\u00a0<sup id=\"cite_ref-5\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup>385 rushing yards, 77 receiving yards, and two touchdowns.\u00a0<sup id=\"cite_ref-8\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Love became a starter in 2024, replacing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/08\/25\/shocking-broncos-cut-audric-estime-running-back-3-possible-fits\/\" target=\"_self\">Audric Estime<\/a>, who went to the NFL. He wound up rushing for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns while catching 28 passes for 237 yards and two scores. Love helped Notre Dame reach the National Championship Game, where they lost to Ohio State.\u00a0<sup id=\"cite_ref-13\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Love and the Fighting Irish ended the regular season with a 10-2 record. Love has rushed for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also has hauled in 27 receptions for 280 yards and three touchdowns. In addition, he has been named a finalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award.<\/p>\n<h3>Should the Chiefs Draft Him?<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248949\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248949\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-248949\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"ravens injury\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27197217_168400545_lowres.jpg 1790w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-248949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 28, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (10) is tackled by Baltimore Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins (2) during the fourth quarter at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Chiefs are having a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/11\/20\/catastrophic-chiefs-2025-season-may-signal-massive-free-agent-travis-kelce-departure\/\" target=\"_self\">catastrophic<\/a> season. They own a 6-6 record and have just a <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/standings\/playoff-picture\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">34 percent<\/a> chance of making the playoffs. That&#8217;s strange for a team that has made the Super Bowl five times (won three) in the past six years.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs needs to get back on track and emerge as the elite team they usually are. Adding an explosive running back like Jeremiyah Love would help. He possesses the speed, vision, and tackle-breaking needed to become an NFL star. Plus, he would be an upgrade over Kansas City\u2019s running back combo of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/05\/20\/nfl-analyst-believes-chiefs-could-release-leading-rusher\/\" target=\"_self\">Kareem Hunt<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/08\/30\/report-dont-be-surprised-if-chiefs-pull-off-running-back-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">Isiah Pacheco<\/a>. If Jeremiyah Love is still available, the Chiefs shouldn&#8217;t hesitate to draft him.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Image: Mark J. Rebilas &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 2026 NFL mock draft has the Kansas City Chiefs selecting Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":257720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,6431],"tags":[33664,7466],"class_list":["post-257214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chiefs","category-nfl-teams","tag-jeremiyah-love","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-news"],"modified_by":"Mike Roberts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257214"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257794,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257214\/revisions\/257794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}