Exclusive: Jeremiyah Love Ready to “Take the League by Storm” With Cardinals
Jeremiyah Love expected to be drafted by the Arizona Cardinals.
The Heisman Trophy semifinalist was selected No. 3 overall by the Cardinals in the 2026 NFL Draft. Love obviously had a notable career at Notre Dame, finishing his final season as a Unanimous All-American after rushing for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns.
That performance led to Love’s high draft selection and, shortly thereafter, a record $53 million guaranteed contract for running backs.
“I kind of expected it towards the end, maybe a week before the draft,” said Love in a one-on-one interview with R.org. “I got on a call with Monty, and Monty’s our GM, and we sat down and talked for a little minute, and it was a great conversation. (Prior to that) the Cardinals didn’t hit me up during the whole draft experience, so we kinda knew what was going on.”
Love said before he knew he was going to the Cardinals, he figured he’d go No. 4 to the Tennessee Titans or No. 5 to the New York Giants.
“Before then, I thought I was probably going to the Titans or the Giants, which would have been a blessing as well,” said Love.
“I’m glad and I’m honored to be a Cardinal. It’s just a blessed opportunity. I get an opportunity to play football at the highest level, do it with a great team. I’ve been able to connect with some of the players, connect with Coach (Mike) LaFleur. It’s great people, man. Completely different coaching staff than it was last year. A lot of players here are great people on and off the field.”
Love spoke highly of first-year head coach Mike LaFleur, who made a name for himself as the offensive coordinator of the high-powered Los Angeles Rams offense in recent seasons. Matthew Stafford won his first MVP last season under the coaching of LaFleur.
“I’m just blessed to be a part of a good culture here, and also blessed to have great coaches as well,” Love said of LaFleur. “Coach LaFleur is a very good coach. Just getting to know more about him, man. He has a great offensive mind off the field. He’s a great guy. I’m just blessed to be here, blessed to be a Cardinal. I’m looking forward to doing great things with this organization.”
Open to Different Roles
Love participated in his first organized team activities with the Cardinals this week and was tried out at kick returner by LaFleur. LaFleur left open the possibility of using Love in that role at some point. The All-American running back had only three kick returns during his collegiate career, but he’s open to the idea.
“It’d be a great opportunity to showcase more of my skills because I can be a kick returner — I would have no problem with doing that,” said Love.
“I would be very joyful about doing it. Any opportunity to get the ball in my hands and do something with it, it’s great for me. I’m blessed to be able to do that, because not everybody gets to touch the ball, so in whatever way or form it takes, me being able to make plays, I’m all for it, whether it’s kick return or punt return, or whatever it may be.
“I’m ready for it and excited about it,” Love continued. “Football is football, end of the day. I’m part of something bigger than myself. If they need me to go out there and play kick return and be the returner or the off returner or whatever it may be. I’m gonna go out there and do it, I have no problems with that. I’m actually looking forward to exploring more about me being a kick returner and stuff like that.”
Goals for Year 1
When asked about his main goals for his rookie season, Love focuses on the team aspect rather than individual accolades. He did say that it would be great to end the year with some awards, such as the Rookie of the Year. Love helped lead the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a College Football Playoff National Championship during the 2024 season. The Cardinals finished with the worst record in the NFL last season at 3-14.
“As far as team goals, go out and win some games, man,” said Love. “Go out there and compete and do what we got to do to be recognized as a great team in the NFL. Last season was last season, that’s in the past. This season is a new season. We got a new coaching staff on the team that is willing to do anything to have success. So team-wise, the goal is just to win games and do what we have to do to get that level of success that we want.”
Love does stress that he wants to take the “league by storm” as soon as his rookie season.
“Personally, I just want to go out there and take the league by storm. I’m not trying to wait around for anything — this is not college, me coming in being able to sit behind the veterans or upperclassmen,” said Love.
“No, this is the NFL, man. I plan to come in and do what I gotta do to cement my name as one of the best in the league, and at the end of my rookie year, I want to win some awards and stuff like that. But that’ll be week by week in making sure that I’m performing the way that I need to get to that point.
“Then it also just brings it back to the team, as long as I’m doing whatever’s best for the team, all those things kind of throughout my time in Notre Dame, I’ve been a team guy,” said Love. “Pretty much my whole career at Notre Dame, I was able to accomplish a lot of great things, both as a team and both individually. Those things weren’t set in stone. Being a good teammate, being a good player, I happened to achieve those accolades. That’d be great. Who doesn’t want awards at the end of the season?”
As Love begins his NFL career, one of his major partnerships is with none other than Sharpie. He actually signed his record-breaking contract with a Sharpie S-Gel pen and released his first comic book, Jeremonstar, through the collaboration.
“Yeah, so pretty much I was named the Sharpie Rookie of the Year, it’s named that by Sharpie,” Love said. “I got to join a great team of just great individuals. I signed my contract with the Sharpie S-Gel pen. Want to do it with the best and decided to partner with Sharpie, because it’s just very authentic. I’ve been using Sharpie my whole life, so it made a lot of sense to just partner with them, and I’m glad that they reached out to me and wanted to partner with me.”