The Las Vegas Raiders' relatively underwhelming season with rookie Ashton Jeanty should be a cautionary tale for the Arizona Cardinals' incoming rookie Jeremiyah Love.
The Raiders selected Jeanty out of Boise State with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Considering he was the NCAA rushing yards leader in 2024, talent was never the problem with this pick.
Rather, it was the opportunity cost of a team selecting in the No. 6 spot, clearly in need of multiple roster spots to fill, taking a premium running back position. Typically, that should be more of a luxury rather than necessity -- a position you fill last second via a mid-round draft selection or free agency.
Running back isn't valuable enough to fix the Cardinals' problems
The Cardinals even followed a similar blueprint with their offseason signing of former Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier on a two-year, $12.25 million deal. That made the opportunity cost of spending a coveted No. 3 overall pick on Love even more difficult to justify.
Arizona still needs a quarterback, has one of the worst offensive lines in the league, and still needs to improve a defense that surrendered 28.7 points per game last season. In other words, there are several other higher priorities to address than the replaceable running back position, especially now that Allgeier is in the picture.
It would've been one thing if the Cardinals entered the 2026 season with a similar roster that ranked second-worst in rushing yards per game in 2025, ironically only behind the Raiders. But besides the obvious fact that the Raiders' Jeanty selection didn't address the bigger picture negatively affecting their run game and offense as a whole, it's also a different Cardinals roster entering 2026.
They bring in Allgeier and now have a running back logjam with Trey Benson and James Conner set to return from their respective season-ending injuries. Perhaps Arizona can get some trade value for one of those players to resolve the logjam, though the fact that Conner took a pay cut to remain in the valley does complicate the situation.
All this to say, it's hard to understand how the Cardinals just recently witnessed Jeanty's collegiate success fail to translate into having an impact on winning for the Raiders, only to go on to draft Love the following year.
Different talents, maybe, but concerningly similar situations.
The Cardinals still have other far more important areas of need to address, making it difficult to maximize Love's talents. But even if he does overcome that adversity to put together a strong rookie season thanks to his raw talent, the running back position is not important enough to drastically impact a Cardinals roster looking to improve off a three-win season.
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