One Thing the Cardinals Cannot Afford to Get Wrong in the NFL Draft

We're far removed from Valentine's Day, though Arizona Cardinals fans are feeling the love more and more with each passing moment until the 2026 NFL Draft rolls around Thursday night.

Buzz surrounding the Cardinals' third overall pick and what could come of it has reached nuclear levels of activity as we crawl closer to Monti Ossenfort officially being on the clock.

In fairness, there's a number of outcomes that are plausible given the state of Arizona's roster and where the Cardinals find themselves in terms of their rebuild.

Yet one pick above all is rapidly dividing the fan base, and if rumors do indeed match reality, the Cardinals should avoid Cupid's arrow at all costs.

Meet Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love

Meet Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, who Cardinals fans fell head over heels for after a strong combine performance in Indianapolis.

We knew Love was among the best offensive prospects in the class thanks to his 2025 tape, though there was just something about seeing Love run a 40-yard dash that instantly made him a can't miss prospect for Cardinals fans after combine festivities finished.

Love's resume and profile entering the league needs no introduction: He was the main engine for Notre Dame's offense last season while earning a spot as a Heisman finalist. Now, Love enters the NFL Draft with little to no weaknesses on his scouting report.

Most of the arguments you'll hear from insertcardsfaneraszn on social media is Love is projected to be the best player available when Arizona's on the clock and the Cardinals need playmakers on their roster.

Fans have often connected passing on Love to the Cardinals passing on Adrian Peterson years ago to take offensive tackle Levi Brown.

Love, hopefully, has a wonderful career on football's biggest stage — but it shouldn't be in Arizona.

Jeremiyah Love is Draft Luxury Cardinals Can't Afford

Welcome to the part of the program where we'll unplug the PlayStation.

The argument for and against drafting Love with the third overall pick, at its core, comes down to foundational team-building. While there's several different ways to go about crafting a successful NFL team, there's typically a few trends you'll see.

As the game constantly evolves and changes, some facets simply won't disappear. For as prevalent as eye candy is in the backfield and offensive schemes have evolved, success in football starts and begins at the line of scrimmage — particularly when establishing a rushing attack.

The Cardinals added Isaac Seumalo to start at left guard, squeezing between left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and center Hjalte Froholdt to form a fairly solid left side of the line. However, the right side counterparts still leave a lot to be desired in volatile guard Isaiah Adams and whatever game of musical chairs the Cardinals are playing at right tackle.

Case in point, this isn't a game of Madden. Love cannot be inserted into this offense and automatically perform to expectations with an offensive line that very much has a lot of room for improvement.

In 2025, Arizona's offensive line ranked just outside of the bottom third of average yards before contact on running plays at 1.2 per SharpFootballAnalysis. Their run-stuff rate (19%) finished as the eighth-worst in the NFL last season.

The Cardinals' rushing attack ranked second to last in the NFL last season in terms of yards per game, though being honest a good mix of that was due to injuries and game script, as the Cardinals fell behind often in games and quickly shifted to a more pass-heavy approach to play catch-up.

To truly fix Arizona's rushing attack and get their offense back on track, the Cardinals should prioritize shoring up the right side of the line. Drafting Love is great — until he's hit in the backfield every drive and can't find any sustained success.

Ask Ashton Jeanty and the Las Vegas Raiders how that went last season.

Perhaps if this was a year later in Arizona's timeline, where the Cardinals improved their offensive line and were ready to welcome a dynamic weapon such as Love to the mix as the final piece to their puzzle, it'd make more sense.

Yet even then, drafting a running back early and expecting that to contribute to overall team success hasn't worked out.

The last running back to be drafted in the top five (Saquon Barkley in 2018) had a respectively strong individual stint with jerseys and season tickets sold in New York (which surely Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill is pushing for) though the Giants have just one winning season since drafting Barkley.

Even this past season, only one of the league's top five rushers was either on a playoff team or a first-round pick.

We also need to acknowledge the financial side of taking Love with the third overall pick, which would see the Cardinals pay him $50.5 million fully guaranteed according to the league's rookie scale contract setup.

Love, in terms of guaranteed money, would clear the next highest running back (Barkley) by $14 million. In terms of cap hit ($9.1 million), he'd be a top ten running back immediately while the $50 million mark would give Love the highest total contract value at the position.

All without registering an official snap on an NFL field.

The Cardinals don't have a solidified defense, nor a solidified offensive line, nor a solidified franchise quarterback in place to justify Love's presence at No. 3. This is the equivalent of wanting a new spoiler on a car when you need new oil, a fresh set of tires and a transmission change.

Would he generate excitement? Surely. The buzz around the Valley would be exciting, much like it was to Marvin Harrison Jr.'s arrival two seasons ago.

Fans want something to cheer for. That's understandable. There hasn't been a ton of fun in the desert lately.

Yet much like Cardinals fans quickly found out with Harrison, excitement doesn't win football games. Assembling football teams the correct way does so, and when evaluating Arizona's current state of the roster, there are far better ways to construct a winning football team than adding Love with many other pressing needs.

That's what the Cardinals can't afford to get wrong.

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