Why Jeremiah Love’s talent transcends the value of the RB position: ‘Find me the flaws’

The running back position has become less and less valued in the NFL draft in recent years. However, FOX Sports senior college football analyst Joel Klatt and NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay don’t want the value of the running back position to skew the quality of Notre Dame’s Jeremiah Love. On the most recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” McShay shared that Love is the first running back he has ever ranked No. 1 in his big board in his 26 years of covering the draft. On top of that, NFL teams also have Love ranked as high or almost as high on their big draft boards, according to McShay. “I’ve never had a No. 1 overall running back, and this year will be the exception,” McShay said. “We saw Saquon Barkley, Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey that year. We had Ashton Jeanty. Forget my ranking, talking to NFL teams, the lowest I heard they had him three on their board. So he’s one of the three best, if not the best player in this draft.” Klatt also ranked Love pretty high on his big board, placing him as the second-best player in the 2026 NFL Draft in his recently revealed ranking of the top 50 draft prospects. Klatt previously said he holds Love in high regard because of how many things he does at the elite level, like his ability to hit a home run when running between the tackles and outside. But even in a draft class perceived as weaker than others in recent memory, there’s still debate over whether Love should be one of the first players drafted. Klatt, however, believes Love’s versatile talent should make him a top-five selection. “When you have a guy who’s not just a running back, and to me he reminds me of or could potentially become McCaffrey — maybe not McCaffrey, he’s probably like one of the six best receivers in the league — but definitely a guy who can be a threat out of the backfield, like Jahmyr Gibbs and so on,” Klatt said. “Those are the guys where you think, OK, I’m not just paying him to be a running back. He really contributes. I think he could catch 40 passes in a season, and everything would be just fine. Then, maybe the economy [of drafting a running back with a top-five pick] training in a particular way at the top. Love demonstrated high-end abilities as a runner and receiver at Notre Dame last season. He totaled 1,372 yards on 6.9 yards per carry and 18 touchdowns in 12 games, ranking in the top 10 in the nation in all of those stats. He also had 27 receptions for 280 yards and three touchdowns. That would have put Love on pace for about 38 receptions, 400 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns over the course of a 17-game season. Klatt sent Love to the Tennessee Titans with the fourth overall pick in his last draft, thinking he would be a great fit for second-year quarterback Cam Ward. He also thinks Love would be a good fit for Tennessee, saying, “Wouldn’t you like to see that from a running back to value him there, but it’s the instincts, the ability to stop and start, the balance of contact, having a sense of cut lanes and almost like a sixth sense with vision,” McShay said. “But I think that’s why we all look and say he falls to seven and Washington because he’s a running back and the economics of that.” Still, McShay firmly believes Love should be one of the first players selected in the 2026 draft. “Find me the faults,” McShay said. “You always worry about running backs and durability, kind of handling that load, and it’ll be up to the NFL team that drafts him to figure out what’s best for him. But I just think he’s everything you’re looking for.”