Breer: Cards will be ‘judicious’ on Jeremiyah Love

Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said “It’s a maintenance thing with ankles, you guys see the way he cuts...I don’t know what he’s totally feeling, only he knows...but he’s doing good.” Great, not cryptic at all, Mike. Love is a reasonable low-end RB2 if his ankles decide he wants to play his full allotment of the 50/50 split against the Lions in Week 5.

The Cardinals’ star rookie running back appeared downtrodden after last week’s game after injuring his other ankle. His continued participation puts him on track to play, but his comments about occasionally preferring a snap count, coupled with his new injury, put him in the RB2/3 category. That said, the Cardinals’ game environment against the Lions this week should be fantasy-friendly.

Love was listed as a limited practice participant after he tweaked his ankle in the Cardinals’ Week 4 loss to the Giants. Though he seemingly seized command of Arizona’s backfield in Week 3, Tyler Allgeier was heavily involved in Week 4 as Love hurt his ankle. He was already nursing his other ankle heading into the season and may see limited touches again with this latest tweak. Love is still trending to play Week 5 against the Lions but may sit back on the RB2/3 borderline as his ankle heals.

Love will presumably have his practice reps monitored, but he isn’t at risk of missing Week 5. He went down with a new ankle injury late in the second quarter of Week 4. Love played sparingly in the second half but denied getting injured at all after the game. It sounds like it’s not a major issue, but it’s hard to feel confident in him handling a heavy workload after how things unfolded last week. He is tumbling back into the RB3 ranks for his upcoming game against the Lions.

It’s been an odd 24 hours for Love, who was quoted after Sunday’s game saying this is shaping up to be the “longest year” of his career while also adding that he’s “tired” and would be willing to pass off work to Tyler Allgeier or Bam Knight in the event that he doesn’t think he can do what is being asked of him. As for this latest injury, LaFleur said the ankle injury isn’t the same one Love injured in the preseason, meaning he now has two ankle injuries to manage for the rest of the season. The Cardinals’ backfield was already proving hard to predict, and the latest quote from Love, coupled with the injury news, doesn’t exactly instill more confidence in him going forward. He draws a plus Week 5 matchup against the Lions, but should be treated as a fringe RB2/RB3 for now.

Love engaged in a long, candid conversation with Cardinals beat reporters after the game today, saying his snaps are being managed because he currently is “not able to go out there and do spectacular plays every single time.” Love said this is probably going to be the “longest year” of his life, and his preseason ankle injury is not the only thing he is dealing with. Love said his body is sometimes just “tired,” and that he would “probably just hinder the team” if he took on more work in his current state. He rhetorically asked, “why not put somebody else out there that’s playing better?” For those wondering, the Cardinals don’t go on bye until Week 14. They face the fantasy-friendly Lions defense in Week 5, which could help Love get his confidence back with an efficient performance.

Love “added” a -8 yard reception. One week after seeming to seize complete command of the Cardinals’ backfield with a 26-touch, 109-yard performance, Love out-touched Tyler Allgeier just 15-10. It was Allgeier who notched a 22-yard touchdown. Asked about it afterwards, coach Mike LaFleur lamely mentioned something about the Cardinals’ two-minute offense. Twitter doctors were claiming Love — who had only one fourth quarter touch — was dealing with some sort of injury, but we didn’t see it. Neither LaFleur nor Love made any mention of any kind of supposed issue after the game. We assume he will be fine ahead of a potential Week 5 shootout with the Lions.

Love tallied a career-high 26 touches in Week 3, gashing the 49ers’ banged-up offensive line for over 100 total yards. The rookie out-snapped Tyler Allgeier 55-to-31 while also out-touching him 26-to-6. Nearly all the high-value touches went to Love, who scored on a play-action pass at the one-yard line. The path to true workhorse usage is wide open for Love after a monstrous workload and productive fantasy day against the 49ers. He is a high-end RB2 for Week 4 against the Giants.

On Friday, Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said Love and RB Tyler Allgeier are going to rotate this season. Ultimately, they did in Week 2, but Love was in for the first series, running the ball on three of the Cardinals’ first six plays. The rookie running back looks spry and explosive, yet there was simply no room to run against the Seahawks’ elite defense. Although Love is still splitting snaps with RB Tyler Allgeier, Love out-touched him 12-7 this week. Love can be viewed as a low-end RB2/FLEX next week against the 49ers.

LaFleur is again insisting that Love, the No. 3 overall pick of this year’s draft, and 2026 free agent signee Allgeier will rotate in the backfield, while adding that it “is a long season.” Love saw 13 touches in last week’s win over the Chargers, while Allgeier had 19, and was out-snapped by Allgeier 41 to 32. A similar rotation going forward would put a damper on Love’s week-to-week upside after the rookie spent most of the offseason going as a top-30 pick in fantasy drafts, but he’ll maintain a decent value as long as he continues to see double-digit touches. Both Love and Allgeier will be hard to trust as anything more than fringe RB2/RB3 this week against the Seahawks.