Arizona Cardinals' worst offseason move named, and it doesn't make sense
· Yahoo Sports
The Arizona Cardinals' biggest move of the offseason arguably has been selecting running back Jermiyah Love third overall in the 2026 NFL draft last month. He was viewed by many as the best player in the draft.
Taking the best player certainly should be praised, right?
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Well, ESPN's Bill Barnwell believes it was the Cardinals' worst move of the offseason.
Jeremiyah Love was the Cardinals' worst move?
It's the right player in the wrong situation. Love profiles as a fantastic running back prospect, just as Ashton Jeanty, Bijan Robinson and Saquon Barkley did in years past. It'll be extremely difficult for Love to live up to those expectations in Arizona, where the Cardinals have one of the league's least-imposing quarterback rooms and offensive lines. Passing up potential defensive difference-makers such as Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs makes leaning into running back a difficult proposition, especially given that the Cardinals had already signed Tyler Allgeier to work alongside James Conner.
Even if Love does emerge as a standout back, the finances of the running back position already cap what teams typically want from their first-round picks. By signing a fully guaranteed four-year, $53 million contract, Love has already realized the largest guarantee for any back in football by a considerable margin. His $13.3 million average salary makes Love the eighth-highest-paid back in the league from day one.
If he works out, he offers modest savings on what the Cardinals could have acquired by signing a veteran back like Kenneth Walker III in free agency. If the Cards had landed Reese and turned him into a valuable edge rusher, they would have found a player worth $40 million per season while paying him that same $13.3 million salary. And history tells us that we shouldn't be any more confident about teams being right about backs than we should be about players at any other position, even given Robinson's success with the Falcons.
With the market for running backs staying relatively flat over the past decade, it has become much more reasonable and logical to pay backs on second contracts than to use high draft picks to land them in Round 1. There might be a team for which using a first-round pick on a running back makes sense, but that team isn't the 2026 Cardinals. I hope (and expect) to see Love enjoy a lengthy, successful career in Arizona, but the Cardinals had bigger issues to address in Round 1 of the draft.
From a value standpoint, okay, Love isn't a great move. However, the value argument a little tiresome. The Cardinals would be paying some player the same amount of money. And while Arvell Reese as a premier pass rusher would be a great value, the problem is we don't know that is what he will be. The Cardinals might not have seen him as a full-time edge rusher. It appears that he won't be that with the New York Giants, at least to start.
The problem was that the top players were all non-premium positions — Love as a QB, Styles as an off-ball LB, Downs as a safety. If there had been an edge rusher the Cardinals graded higher than Love or at least as highly, he would have been the pick. Had the New York Jets not selected David Bailey, the Cardinals likely take him.
Does taking a running back so early in the draft put pressure on him to put up big numbers? Yes.
Did the Cardinals need another running back? Probably not.
Is the Cardinals' roster built in such a way that an impact running back will make the team better? Well, better, yes. Will they win more? That's questionable.
However, the Cardinals made many other much more questionable moves this offseason. Taking Love might have been a bad value move, but it certainly wasn't their worst offseason transaction.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals' worst offseason move named, and it doesn't make sense