Add running back Jeremiyah Love to the list of 2026 first-round picks who have signed their first NFL contracts.
The Cardinals announced that Love has signed his four-year deal with the team on Friday. Love is guaranteed just over $53 million under the terms of the agreement and that is the most guaranteed money any running back in the league is due under their current contract.
Arizona has a fifth-year option on Love’s deal. A decision on exercising it will be due after Love’s third season.
Love led the nation in rushing, rushing touchdowns and overall offensive touchdowns in each of his final two years at Notre Dame. He’s expected to jump right into a major role in the Arizona offense to kick off his professional career.
Cardinals Clips
The Cardinals announced that they signed three of their third-day picks on Thursday.
Fifth-round wide receiver Reggie Virgil, sixth-round linebacker Karson Sharar and seventh-round offensive lineman Jayden Williams are under contract.
Virgil joins a room stacked with 12 other players and will seek to find playing time behind Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson and Kendrick Bourne.
Virgil and Sharar will try to win a spot on the roster with their special teams play. Sharar played more than 570 special teams snaps during his time at Iowa.
Williams, a versatile lineman from Ole Miss, started every game at right tackle last season. He also has 19 starts at left tackle since 2022.
The Cardinals also announced they released wide receiver Andre Baccellia on Thursday. They also designated offensive lineman Valentin Senn as their international player, meaning the team can carry 91 players this offseason.
Quarterback Carson Beck got a reminder of how long he spent in college when he got to the Cardinals facility ahead of this weekend’s rookie minicamp.
The third-round pick caught up with left tackle Paris Johnson, who is going into his fourth NFL season and was on the same recruiting trip to the University of Georgia with Beck. Beck wound up spending five seasons at Georgia — he was a starter there in 2023 and 2024 — before moving on to Miami last year and getting drafted in the third round by the Cardinals last month.
“I think everybody has to run their own race,” Beck said on Thursday, via the team’s website. “Those three years I had of playing and starting are priceless.”
Beck added that “experience is nothing if there is no application from the lessons that you’ve learned from the experiences” and said he plans to keep growing as he works his way into a quarterback depth chart that includes Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew.
“Even if I were to be the guy at some point, you are constantly learning, through game experience, through past experience, meetings, just talking to guys around the facility, you’re trying to get breadcrumbs from each and every person,” Beck said. There’s only one guy out there . . . Obviously, I would love to play and perform but again, we’ll see where it takes me.”
There are more daunting quarterback rooms around the NFL and the Cardinals have a new coach with few ties to anything that went on in the past, which could serve Beck well if he shows upside once he’s on the field in Arizona.
Kurt Warner went from going undrafted to playing quarterback in the NFL and his son is trying to follow the same path.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that E.J. Warner has accepted an invitation to participate in the Broncos’ rookie minicamp as a tryout player this weekend. Warner was at the Chiefs’ minicamp last weekend for the same purpose.
Warner started 10 games at Fresno State last season and went 192-of-277 for 2,030 yards, 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He was Rice’s starter for the 2024 season and spent two seasons as the starter at Temple to kick off his college time.
Warner’s father famously worked in a grocery store and played in the Arena League and NFL Europe before getting his chance to start for the Rams in 1999. He won the MVP and the Super Bowl that season, which makes for a tough act to repeat so his son will likely just be focused on earning a spot on a roster or practice squad to start his own career.
The Texans are going to take a look at a quarterback during their rookie minicamp.
Per Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle, Clayton Tune has accepted an invitation to try out for the club this weekend.
Tune, 27, was a Cardinals fifth-round pick in 2023. He appeared in 13 games for the club in his first two seasons before he was waived during roster cuts.
Tune then signed with Green Bay’s practice squad, starting the club’s Week 18 loss to the Vikings with the Packers resting starters for the postseason.
In his 15 career appearances, Tune has completed 21-of-38 passes for 112 yards with three interceptions.
Tune played his college ball at Houston, making this weekend’s tryout a homecoming of sorts.
The Steelers’ recent decision to apply the unrestricted free agency tender to quarterback Aaron Rodgers has sparked speculation as to whether Rodgers may be thinking about signing with another team. That speculation has centered on the Cardinals, the only other team that still doesn’t have a clear starter — or two obvious in-house candidates to compete for the job.
Josh Weinfuss of ESPN asked “a source” if the talk “was real.” The response was this: “Not at all.”
It’s no surprise. If the Cardinals were going to make a play for Rodgers, something would have surfaced by now. Despite the links to coach Mike LaFleur and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, the truth is that the Cardinals face a stiff challenge in 2026 — one that would make it difficult for Rodgers to cap his career with a playoff berth.
And so the options continue to be: (1) the Steelers; or (2) retirement. And while a serious injury to a starter in the next two months could change that, the UFA tender will give the Steelers exclusive negotiating rights for Rodgers as of July 22. That complicates any potential plan by Rodgers to take a wait-and-see approach.
From the moment quarterback Aaron Rodgers became a free agent, it was obvious that not many teams were interested in signing him to be the starting quarterback. To date, only the Steelers have shown such interest.
The Cardinals have always been a possibility, given that they don’t have a clear first-string quarterback on the roster. And it would make sense for the Cardinals to be interested in Rodgers.
Nathaniel Hackett, his former offensive coordinator with the Packers and the Jets, has that same role in Arizona now. And Mike LaFleur, brother of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur (with whom Rodgers won a pair of NFL MVP awards), is the Cardinals’ head coach.
Last year, Mike LaFleur was the Rams’ offensive coordinator. They viewed Rodgers as a potential Plan B, if Matthew Stafford had been traded to the Giants or the Raiders.
In recent days, some in the media have connected dots that had been hiding in plain sight for weeks. Even after drafting quarterback Carson Beck, the Cardinals don’t have an obvious answer at the position.
But here’s the reality. How competitive will the Cardinals be this year, even if Rodgers were to join the team? They have to contend with the Seahawks, Rams, and 49ers in their own division, playing each twice per year. The Cardinals also play the four teams of the AFC West, the four teams of the NFC East, the Saints, Jets, and Lions.
If Rodgers is hoping to finish his career with a playoff run, it won’t be easy to do it with the Cardinals. It won’t be impossible. But it won’t be easy.
So, yes, there are reasons for the Cardinals to be interested in Rodgers, and for Rodgers to be interested in the Cardinals. There are also reasons for Rodgers to not be interested in the Cardinals.
Regardless, nearly two months into free agency, there’s been no indication that the Cardinals are eyeing Rodgers or that Rodgers is eyeing the Cardinals. Could it still happen? Sure. Would it make sense at one level? Absolutely.
At another level, it would make no sense.
He was the eleventh overall pick in the draft. As of Friday, however, Cowboys safety Caleb Downs had the top-selling jersey among all rookies.
Fanatics has announced, via Fox Sports, the ten best-selling rookie jerseys in the wake of the 2026 draft. Downs leads the way.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, lands at No. 5. That’s one spot behind Steelers rookie quarterback Drew Allar, a third-round pick, who sits at No. 4.
Here’s the full top ten: (1) Downs; (2) Dolphins linebacker Jacob Rodriguez; (3) Cowboys linebacker Malachi Lawrence; (4) Allar; (5) Mendoza; (6) Dolphins cornerback Chris Johnson; (7) Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love; (8) Patriots offensive lineman Caleb Lomu; (9) Bears safety Dillon Thieneman; (10) Jets linebacker David Bailey.
The presence of two Cowboys defensive players in the top three and two Dolphins defensive players in the top six could be a reflection of the overall optimism the fans of those teams are currently feeling. For Dallas, the offense is among the best in the league; it won’t take much defensive improvement to make the team a contender. As to the Dolphins, it’s a new era with the hiring of G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley.
It’s somewhat surprising that none of the four receivers taken in the first round made the list. And the absence of Rams quarterback Ty Simpson reflects the reality that he’ll be spending a year (or two, or maybe three) behind Matthew Stafford.
The numbers will surely change once the depth charts are determined for 2026 and, after that, the games are played. The rookies who play and play well will see a spike in jersey sales.
The dust has settled on the 2026 NFL draft, and perceptions around the Cardinals haven’t changed: They’re the longest long shots to make the playoffs in the NFL.
The Cardinals’ betting odds to make the playoffs are currently +2000, which gives them the longest odds to make the postseason. They also had the longest odds to make the postseason before the draft, so the addition of running back Jeremiyah Love with the third overall pick made no difference to how likely the Cardinals are to make the playoffs, at least as far as the betting odds are concerned.
The biggest reason that few see the Cardinals winning this season is the uncertainty at the quarterback position, where Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew are likely to compete for the starting job, and rookie third-round draft pick Carson Beck could push his way into the mix as well. There’s no reason to think any of those quarterbacks are going to lead this team to the playoffs this season.
And it doesn’t help the Cardinals’ cause that the NFC West figures to be very competitive, and the Seahawks, Rams and 49ers are expected to be NFC championship contenders.
First-year Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur has inherited a team that no one expects to be in the playoffs this year. The Cardinals may be building more for 2027.
Plenty of pro athletes blow through their money quickly and go broke in retirement. Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love is not about to let that happen.
Love says all the money he gets from the four-year, $53 million contract he’s set to sign with the Cardinals will be invested, and he plans to let that money work for him.
“I’m not spending any of my NFL checks,” Love told BRGridiron. “All that money, my financial advisor’s going to take care of all of that. I don’t know about it, it ain’t my job. It’s going to be there making more and more money.”
The money Love spends during his career will come from his endorsements, and Love said even with that money, he’s not particularly concerned about what he’s going to buy himself.
“First thing I might buy with my marketing money is a house for my parents, car for my dad,” Love said. “Shoot, I’m gonna put myself last. I’m going to take care of my family first.”
Other draft picks would be wise to follow Love’s lead, and make sure the money is there for them after they’ve retired.
