The Arizona Cardinals used their top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft -- 3rd overall -- to select Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. The paradox: The Cardinals taking Love with the 3rd overall pick is perceived as a horrendous value, even though he was widely considered the best overall player in this draft, regardless of position.
The biggest reason is that the 3rd overall pick comes with a fully guaranteed contract, making Love the highest-paid running back (in guaranteed money) in NFL history. And considering he's never played a snap, there's going to be plenty of criticism surrounding that kind of investment.
Especially for a team that is rebuilding. The Cardinals have a new head coach (Mike LaFleur) and just cut former #1 overall pick Kyler Murray this offseason. Murray was once the Cardinals' franchise quarterback, but injuries derailed his -- and the team's -- progress, and now he's with the Vikings. The state of the Cardinals is not what you would consider ideal for a top-5 pick to be invested at the running back position, but a recent nugget shared by ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler paints a harsh reality for why this pick makes sense.
Arizona Cardinals slammed in post-draft quote shared by ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler
Here is the nugget shared by Fowler in his post-draft piece on ESPN:
"A few scouts we talked to were supportive of the Love pick. "He's the best player in the draft and the team sucks and needs excitement," an AFC scout said."
- Jeremy Fowler, ESPN
This feels very much like the scene out of Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd Christmas tells his best friend Harry Dunne, "You are one pathetic loser...no offense."
It's a tough pill to swallow, because that perception of the Cardinals is not an isolated assessment. Although the language is strong and harsh, it does shed some light on some self-awareness from the Cardinals, even.
With Jeremiyah Love in the mix, the Cardinals at least have an offensive weapon they feel they can feature along with star tight end Trey McBride and former top pick Marvin Harrison Jr. Those players are still in their early years, they're still growing, and they have a chance to be the pieces that set the table for a quarterback.
It's not a bad year for the Cardinals to "suck" given what's coming up through the college ranks at the quarterback position.
Even though the sentiment is brutal, the Cardinals are much better off simply facing the reality, and that includes paying the price to take Jeremiyah Love. The idea going into this year's draft was that positional value could be thrown out the window, so if that's the case, the Cardinals are absolved of breaking any unwritten NFL Draft commandments.
And a year from now, depending on how things go at the quarterback position, they might view their current predicament as a blessing in disguise.
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