Arizona Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love is headed to injured reserve after suffering a high-ankle sprain and will be sidelined for roughly four to five weeks, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports.
It's a brutal injury for Love, who has seemingly been dealing with one ankle injury after another ever since the one he suffered in preseason. It's unfortunately turning into an underwhelming rookie campaign for him and raising questions about the Cardinals' draft strategy as a whole. There's no denying the talent, but this is one of the risks associated with spending a top five draft pick on an injury-prone position like running back.
Jeremiyah Love faces yet another setback in Arizona
The silver lining is this was a rebuilding season for the Cardinals anyway, who are out of the NFC West playoff picture at 3-5 despite the Week 8 overtime upset over the Dallas Cowboys. Still, this team had a chance to gain serious momentum with Love back healthy and the switch from Jacoby Brissett to Gardner Minshew II at quarterback.
The jury is still out on whether Love will be one of those elite running backs, which is what it takes to return value on such a steep investment at the position. Part of that will be up to the Cardinals to put him in a position to succeed, figure out their long-term answer at quarterback, and address a significant portion of their shaky offensive line.
But hopefully he can put these ankle issues behind him once and for all this season, because they would be a serious roadblock in Arizona's rebuilding plans if they continue to linger as they have so far. That's unfortunately part of the reality of why running backs are deemed relatively expendable compared to other positions around the league. There have been exceptions to the rule, like Saquon Barkley helping lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl or Derrick Henry ignoring calls from Father Time to remain an elite asset with the Baltimore Ravens.
But there's also the Ashton Jeantys of the world: those top-ten draft picks who might not ultimately separate themselves from the league-average positional replacement level at running back, making the pick look even worse in retrospect.
Cardinals need to hit on this Jeremiyah Love pick
Love still has plenty of time to place himself amongst the league's elites and return value on the pick for Arizona. Still, this latest injury and IR placement is an unfortunate reminder of the reality of relying on a running back as the supposed face of your rebuild, especially with Marvin Harrison Jr. now out of the picture.
Love previously said, "This is probably gonna be the longest year of my life," and he wasn't wrong.
Bad things tend to happen to coveted draft prospects when they wind up in Arizona, whether it's been Kyler Murray or Harrison. Hopefully Love isn't next to add to that list, but his underwhelming start to the season and this untimely setback do raise further questions about whether he'll ultimately return value on this pick for Arizona. Now we won't have an answer on that for another four to five weeks.
Love is a top-tier athlete who recovered surprisingly fast from his preseason injury, so hopefully that's the case here, too. Arizona desperately needs him both for the remainder of the season and as a key part of their offense going forward in this rebuild.
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