The Cardinals are keeping James Conner and signing Tyler Allgeier, but the draft buzz around Arizona’s third overall pick keeps pointing back to a running back. With Thursday’s first round approaching, the speculation around Jeremiyah Love at No. 3 has picked up steam, even as the Cardinals also explore trade-down options if any are available.
That talk matters because the Cardinals hold the third overall pick in a class where the top of the board is still in flux. The article says the Raiders will take quarterback Fernando Mendoza, while the Jets are likely to choose a pass rusher, either David Bailey or Arvell Reese. That leaves Arizona as the team most exposed to a surprise, and the possibility of Love slipping into the conversation has only grown louder.
New coach Mike LaFleur has already talked about running backs coming from a lot of different places, and center Hjalte Froholdt made clear earlier this month that he values the position more than most. “I think (being a) running back is a lost art,” he said, adding that people often assume backs are interchangeable when the line does its job. He said a good back can still create yards when the play breaks, and he pointed to J.C. as the kind of runner who has bailed out the offense many times by doing things the rest of the population cannot do.
That is the friction in all of this. Running back is not considered a cornerstone position, and the Cardinals have already addressed it by keeping Conner and adding Allgeier. Even so, the conversation around No. 3 refuses to die. Froholdt said he values a back who can turn a broken play into 16 or 20 yards, because “if you produce, you produce,” and that kind of belief is exactly what keeps Love attached to Arizona’s draft chatter.
I still do not see the Cardinals taking Love, but the board has a way of changing right up to the first pick. If Ossenfort finds a trade-down partner, that may be the cleanest answer. If not, Arizona will have to decide whether it wants to stay put and make one of the draft’s most debated choices with the third overall pick in hand.
