PITTSBURGH — The Arizona Cardinals selected Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 pick in the NFL draft on Thursday, turning a long-buzzed-about Notre Dame star into the highest-drafted running back since Saquon Barkley went second in 2018.
Love, who played 41 games for Notre Dame and rushed for 2,882 yards with 42 total touchdowns, said he had spent the draft process staying in the moment and never felt nerves. “I haven’t had any nerves this whole draft process,” he said. “But this has been really cool for me. I’ve been having a great time and I’ve been staying in the moment.”
The pick gives Arizona a player who was already being discussed as a generational prospect and gives the Cardinals a centerpiece on a night that was as much about identity as draft position. Love finished his college career with 63 receptions for 594 yards and six touchdowns, numbers that helped make him one of the most complete offensive players in the class.
Mike LaFleur said the Cardinals were drawn in by more than the flash. Love’s pass-blocking stood out, and the coach said he saw no real holes in any part of his game. “You guys see all of the explosive stuff and that’s all there, but he didn’t have weaknesses in my opinion in any of those phases, so you can put him in those situations,” LaFleur said.
The night had been building for years. Five years before the draft, Love and his father Jason started creating Jeremonstar Comics, a project based on his alter ego. In September, he launched the first issue. On Thursday afternoon, he walked the draft red carpet in a suit lined on one side with Notre Dame photos and on the other with a Jeremonstar design, a public reminder that the football player and the comic-book creator have been developing together.
That mix of football and fantasy has become part of Love’s appeal, but the Cardinals are drafting him for what he does between the lines. Earlier in the week in Pittsburgh, 17 NFL draft prospects took part in a football clinic with Special Olympics athletes, and Love was among the names moving through a packed draft week that ended with his phone call from the league stage. For Arizona, the selection is the kind of top-of-the-board move that signals urgency and belief in a player who has already been treated as rare.
Love said the moment still landed with force after it arrived. “After that whole camp I was thinking to myself, ‘Damn, the draft is tomorrow and I really get drafted tomorrow,’” he said before adding, “I’m here.” For the Cardinals, that arrival now comes with the pressure and promise that come with a No. 3 pick, and with a player they believe can fit into any phase of the offense from day one. Related: Reggie Virgil gives Cardinals the deep threat Mike LaFleur wanted.
