{"id":259265,"date":"2025-12-18T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=259265"},"modified":"2025-12-17T19:30:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:30:33","slug":"jeremiyah-love-2026-nfl-draft-profile-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/12\/18\/jeremiyah-love-2026-nfl-draft-profile-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremiyah Love 2026 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremiyah Love <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/other\/jeremiyah-love-declares-for-2026-nfl-draft-notre-dame-rb-doak-walker-winner-projects-as-first-round-pick\/ar-AA1Suw6e?ocid=BingNewsSerp\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">declared<\/a> for the 2026 NFL draft this week, and he profiles as the top running back in the class. Let&#8217;s take a look at his strengths, areas to improve, and his best team fits ahead of an exciting draft cycle.<\/p>\n<h2>Jeremiyah Love 2026 NFL Draft Profile<\/h2>\n<h3>Jeremiyah Love 2026 NFL Draft Overview<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Height:\u00a0<\/strong>6&#8217;0&#8243; (u)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weight:\u00a0<\/strong>214 (u)<\/p>\n<p><strong>College:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/category\/fbs\/independents\/notre-dame-fighting-irish\/\" target=\"_self\">Notre Dame<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Accolades:\u00a0<\/strong>Doak Walker Award 2025, All-American 2025<\/p>\n<h3>Jeremiyah Love Prospect Background<\/h3>\n<p>Love was a four-star prospect coming out of high school and the #4 running back in his class. He was a prolific sprinter in high school, winning the Missouri state 100m dash with a 10.76 time. Love was Audric Estime&#8217;s backup as a true freshman and put together <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jeremiyah-love-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">462 yards from scrimmage<\/a> in 2023. His true sophomore season became the Jeremiyah Love show, and catapulted him into RB1 conversations for the 2026 NFL draft. Over 1,000 yards on the ground, 28 receptions, Love showed that he can be the focal point for an offense. He continued that momentum into 2025 with 1,652 yards from scrimmage and 21 total touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s also an anime fan and has made his own <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.jeremonstarcomics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">comic book<\/a> in his free time, running over the competition in college. Love was named <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/football\/2025\/12\/06\/notre-dame-football-echoes-awards-jeremiyah-love\/87641751007\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Notre Dame&#8217;s MVP for 2025<\/a>, showing his impact on the locker room as a whole.<\/p>\n<h3>Jeremiyah Love Strengths<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Elite long speed, once he&#8217;s in the open field, it&#8217;s over for most defenders.<\/li>\n<li>Quick, calculated footwork behind the line of scrimmage. Every movement has a purpose.<\/li>\n<li>Powerful for his size\/speed profile.<\/li>\n<li>Above average vision to attack the correct gap.<\/li>\n<li>Gamebreaker after the catch, looks perfectly comfortable all over the offense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Jeremiyah Love Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Less adept at finding openings at the second and third level and setting up blocks down the field.<\/li>\n<li>Lacks power in pass protection.<\/li>\n<li>Skillset to operate in a high-snap-percentage role, but has not demonstrated an ability to hold up as a 25-touches-a-game player at the next level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Pro Comparison:\u00a0<\/strong>Darren McFadden<\/p>\n<p><strong>Team Fits:\u00a0<\/strong>Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys<\/p>\n<p><strong>Projected Round:\u00a0<\/strong>Early-Mid First Round<\/p>\n<h3>Last Word on Jeremiyah Love in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/h3>\n<p>Love is an absolute difference maker at the running back position. Teams <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/10\/24\/running-back-least-important-position\/\" target=\"_self\">don&#8217;t value individual talent at their running back position<\/a> much these days, but for a team looking to raise the ceiling of their offense, Love is a perfect fit. It&#8217;s picking nits to find weaknesses in his game, and his ability to contribute both on the air and on the ground will keep defenses honest when he&#8217;s on the field. In a 2026 class that lacks high-end talent at premium positions, it might be time for someone to pay up for a running back and for it to make sense.<\/p>\n<p>Ashton Jeanty is a cautionary tale to teams about taking a running back in the top ten. But Jahmyr Gibbs is a comp thrown out for Jeremiyah Love in the draft community, and he&#8217;s elevated the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/lions\/\" target=\"_self\">Detroit Lions<\/a> offense. The difference is the Lions had already eaten their vegetables and had an offensive line, while the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_self\">Raiders<\/a>, well. You know. It wouldn&#8217;t surprise anyone to see Love in Pro Bowl and All-Pro conversations before too long, and hopefully, the right team takes a swing on him.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo <label>Credit:<\/label>\u00a0MICHAEL CLUBB\/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremiyah Love is the consensus RB1 for the 2026 NFL draft. Here&#8217;s a look at his strengths, weaknesses, and expectations ahead of the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4345,"featured_media":259423,"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":[33760,1647],"tags":[33533,33664,2030],"class_list":["post-259265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles","category-nfl-draft","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-jeremiyah-love","tag-nfl-draft-profiles"],"modified_by":"Mike Kashuba","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259265","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\/4345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259424,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259265\/revisions\/259424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}