Why Cardinals rookie Jeremiyah Love is NFL's most 'overpaid' RB originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Arizona Cardinals pulled off a bit of a surprise pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, selecting Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 overall selection.
While taking a running back wasn't a terrible idea on its own, the draft slot the Cardinals used to take Love is the real problem. By taking Love No. 3 overall, they've just given him a fully guaranteed $53.02 million contract.
That massive deal for a rookie running back has CBS Sports' Garrett Podell calling the No. 3 overall rookie the most "overpaid" running back in the NFL. Unfortunately, Podell isn't wrong, as the Cardinals are spending more than they should on Love.
Jeremiyah Love 'most overpaid' RB in NFL with a $53.02M deal"First-round picks are assigned a draft slot, which means Love is locked into $53.02 million fully guaranteed over the life of his four-year rookie deal," Podell writes. "While his collegiate accomplishments of leading college football in rushing touchdowns (35) and scrimmage touchdowns (40) across his final two seasons at Notre Dame are great, that's not enough to earn more guaranteed money than some of the NFL's best."
Love was a very exciting prospect coming out of Notre Dame, and he was going to be taken inside the top-10 of the NFL Draft.
The pick of Love himself isn't a terrible one, though a rebuilding team taking an RB inside the top-six picks for the second straight year, like what the Las Vegas Raiders did last season, was a bit odd.
The real issue with the Love selection is the massive $53.02 million fully guaranteed contract for being the third overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Considering that Bijan Robinson ($51.56M) and Jahmyr Gibbs ($51.47 million) have smaller contract guarantees than Love, who's not proved himself in the NFL yet, is clear reason to call Love the most overpaid RB in the NFL.
The top contracts for running backs are all fairly reasonable, even the massive new deals for Gibbs and Robinson. But Love's record-setting, and still unbroken, $53.02M guaranteed deal is the biggest overpay for any RB in the league by a wide margin.
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