Jeremiyah Love Prospect Profile
Background
Jeremiyah Love was born in University City, Missouri, and grew up in the Walnut Park neighborhood of northwest St. Louis. As a child Love was a perfectionist who showed social difficulties and eventually saw a pediatrician who suggested he could be on the autism spectrum; his parents declined a formal diagnosis and instead worked with him as he was, his father discovering that challenging his son's competitive nature was the key to redirecting his energy. In eighth grade, he dunked a basketball, and in high school at Christian Brothers College, he competed in track, football, and basketball. He led the team to back-to-back Class 6 state championships, rushed for 1,291 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior, won Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year, and committed to Notre Dame. He backed up Audric Estime as a freshman, took over in 2024 and set a school record with 13 consecutive games with a rushing touchdown. Then in 2025 rushed for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns, broke Jerome Bettis's single-season Notre Dame touchdown record, won the Doak Walker Award, finished third in Heisman voting, earned unanimous All-American honors, and declared for the 2026 NFL Draft as a junior.
Physical Attributes
Jeremiyah Love is fast fast. 4.36 40 yard dash and upset at his time fast. Looks like he teleports on the field to spots 15 yards ahead of where you last saw him. Has the acceleration of an electric car, but hits defenders like he is an 18-wheeler. If the electric car mentioned before sped up into him, I am not sure I would bet against the car wrapping around Love like a bollard. Though he wouldn't need to stand there if he did not want to, because he could step out of the way before you ever even noticed.
Data and Tape Analysis
If you are unfamiliar with my RB radar charts, you can find more information here
I was struggling with exactly how to write this profile. Love is such an insane prospect that it sounds hyperbolic to say the truth about him. I think I made that clear in the physical section, but there are a lot of physically talented running backs who cannot cut it at the NFL level. Being a RB is so much more than that, and often those with the best physical traits fail at the most basic levels of RB play. That is not true for Love.
His ballcarrier vision is uncanny. It looks like he is seeing a half a second into the future. He knows exactly where a hole is going to open and when, because he knows exactly where his linemen will be and exactly how the defense will react. To add his patience on top of that is unfair. It's silly watching him set up a defender, only to leave them as a spectator a second later.
Love combines this foresight with the ability to turn into an apparition. Nicholas Sparks put it perfectly:
"Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it."
Someone his size should not be able to squeeze through the holes he does, much less at the speed he does. Defenders may get an arm on him, but that is never enough to bring him down. He is like sand through your fingers; if there is any room for him to escape, he will. Those arm tackles are just nuisances to Love, I am pretty sure he could run a sub 4.5 40 if every DT in the draft lined up at 5-yard intervals with their arms out trying to slow him down.
The dude can also pass and block. I mentioned earlier that he is like a bollard, and I mean it. I watched him stand up DTs, EDGEs, LBs and Ss at full sprint; it did not matter. He is not like Saquon, who quickly scans and looks to get out; he has the patience to see if he is needed, spots danger spots quickly, and addresses them.
To top it all off, he is a receiving threat too? Love is no McCaffrey, but I think he is about all you can realistically hope for in a RB coming out of college. He ran real routes when split out wide and looked pretty decent? I just finished my WR profiles and there were better routes from him than a few of those guys.
Grade and Outlook
If you cannot tell, I am in love with Jeremiyah Love. I am not sure if he will break immediately into the top five RBs in the league, but top three just seems to be an eventuality for his career. A weapon you do not have to take off the field, I think I will be hard-pressed to find a better impact player in this year's draft.
Grade: 7.3 (Top 5 pick)