Jeremiyah Love Prospect Profile From The 2026 Rookie Super Model
Dwain McFarland breaks down the Rookie Super Model's analysis of Jeremiyah Love and what his outlook for fantasy football looks like based on his traits and collegiate production.
To the surprise of nobody, Jeremiyah Love stands in a tier of his own as the RB1 in this year's Rookie Super Model. For the full RB class, check out the 2026 RB Rookie Super Model.
If you're new to the model, here is an introductory breakdown of the Rookie Super Model, which rates players on a scale of 50 to 100 based on a composite score across Draft Capital, Production and Film. All of this data is integrated into our free NFL Draft Guide, full of big board rankings, mock drafts and more.
You can find a glossary of terms and stats used in this breakdown at the bottom of the prospect profile.
Rookie Super Model Prospect Profile For Jeremiyah Love
Super Model Rating: 89 (5th since 2017)
Draft Pick (Based on mock draft data): 6
Rookie Age: 21.3
Height: 72 inches
Weight: 212 pounds
Love was a consensus top-five RB and four-star recruit in the class of 2023. He hails from St. Louis, where he was the Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year and MaxPreps Missouri High School Football Player of the Year.
He only played 15% of Notre Dame's snaps as a freshman with future NFL Draft pick, Audric Estime (Round 5) in the driver's seat. However, Love took over as the starter during Years 2 and 3, scoring 40 TDs. He shared the backfield with fellow four-star recruit Jadarian Price.
While the RB position isn't a linchpin for winning football at the NFL level, scouts consider Love one of the few blue-chip prospects in the 2026 class. He further solidified himself with a sizzling 4.36-second 40-yard dash (79th percentile) at 212 pounds.
What the Production Says
Love had an amazing Year 3 at Notre Dame, averaging 114 yards rushing and 23 receiving. However, he didn't boom in his first two seasons relative to historical peers, which impacts his year-weighted yards per team attempt (YPTA).
Love's 75 Production Rating is lower than the historical top-12 NFL Draft picks since 2017:
Estime and Price were significant factors in this equation, with the Fighting Irish favoring a rotation. Love handled only 31% of the team's designed rush attempts over his career.
On the one hand, dominating playing time is important. On the other hand, the fact that Love was able to post a year-weighted YPTA above the 60th percentile is impressive. Of course, his best-season YPTA in Year 3 helps his cause.
Year-Weighted YPTA: 1.77 (61st percentile)
Best YPTA: 2.56 (69th percentile)
Best RYPTPA: 0.86 (42nd percentile)
Nerd note: What do these numbers mean?
YPTA: Adjusted yards per team attempt (pass + rush), with receiving yards double-weighted. Normalizes production across teams with different play volumes.
Year-Weighted YPTA: Weights Years 1-3 more heavily, where college production best predicts NFL success. Year 4 carries a negative correlation. Good players show up early.
Best YPTA: Career-high yards per team attempt season.
Best RYPTPA: Peak-season receiving yards per team pass attempt, normalizing production across run-heavy vs. pass-heavy offenses.
Love's closest **Production Rating** comps who were Round 1 or Round 2 NFL Draft picks also played with future NFL players during their college careers:
The Production Rating doesn't make Love a bad prospect. It is one input that helps us frame his overall profile. We would prefer that Love had dominated touches like Barkley with Miles Sanders. But the Notre Dame star will go higher than the players listed above in the draft and has a superior Film Rating (more on that below).
While the model doesn't account for year-over-year improvement, Love is an ascending talent. He upped his YPTA and RYPTPA each year:
His Year 3 YPTA ranks 16th out of 271 prospects since 2017.
Love's best-season RYPTPA (42nd percentile) season fell in the below-average bucket. However, it is worth noting that he grades out slightly above average on a per-route basis as a receiver:
Career YPRR: 1.59 (57th percentile)
Career TPRR: 20% (51st percentile)
Beyond the Production
While volume held down Love's production somewhat, his non-production data points all rate highly. His Film Rating (91) ranks in the top eight all-time in the model, notching him marks in both inputs.
NFL.com Prospect Grade: 6.71 (69th percentile)
Career PFF Rushing & Receiving Grade: 82.1 (89th percentile)
He is Lance Zierlein's seventh-highest graded RB since 2017 and has the fourth-best PFF Grade of Round 1 RBs. His 90.2 career PFF Rush Grade (95th percentile) ranks third for first-rounders. Love is a slippery back with power who can rip off yardage in chunks.
Rushing Average Yards After Contact: 4.35 (67th percentile)
10-Plus Yard Attempts: 17% (55th percentile)
Love backed those numbers up at the NFL Scouting Combine, running a 4.36-second 40-yard dash. At 212 pounds, that gives him a Speed Score of 117.3 (82nd percentile).
Nerd Note: Bill Barnwell invented Speed Score. It helps us understand how fast a player is relative to their weight. A 180-pound RB running a 4.40-second 40-yard dash isn't the same thing as a 215-pound back with the same time. Of all the testing data points from the NFL Scouting Combine, Speed Score carries the most signal for NFL RB production. Formula: Weight*200/(40-yard dash)4.
Another plus for Love: he rarely put the ball on the ground with a 0.2% fumble rate and 5.4% drop rate. The average for an RB prospect in those categories is 0.9% and 6.8%, respectively. Additionally, he allowed pressure on only 4% of his pass-block reps—below the 7% average for prospects.
Zierlein sees Love as a "three-phase" RB with "untapped" upside as a receiver, capable of succeeding in any scheme as a three-down RB. He calls out his ability to process the line of scrimmage, erase pursuit angles, evade tacklers, add yards after contact, and run routes as pluses.
Fantasy Football Outlook For Jeremiyah Love
There have been four RBs who have garnered a Super Model rating between 84 and 94 since 2017, with 75% delivering a top-six finish by Year 3.
Bottom line: The Rookie Super Model rates Love as an early-to-mid-Round 1 NFL Draft pick. His Production Rating isn't as strong as past top-12 picks, but he improved every season and notched strong numbers at a young age. He is electric with the ball in his hands and has the size-speed combo to play every down and create field-flipping plays. His Film Rating suggests unrealized upside as a receiver, which could send him to the superstar stratosphere in fantasy football. Love is a mid-range RB1 with high-end RB1 upside.
Glossary of Terms In The Prospect Profile
Adjusted Career RYPTPA: Career receiving yards per team pass attempt adjusted for age, strength of schedule, QB play, teammate competition, aDOT, and alignment. Doesn't count games missed.
aDOT: Average depth of target in yards.
Career Targeted QB Passer Rating: Passer rating on WR's targets.
Contested catch rate: Percentage of contested targets caught.
Contested catch rate over expected: Percentage of contested targets caught after adjusting for aDOT.
Draft Capital Rating: Based on Chase Stuart's Draft Value Chart, an improved version of what many know as the Jimmy Johnson trade chart. It accounts for the larger drop-off in the first round and a flatter drop-off around the end of the second round.
FDPRR: First downs per route run. Often shown as a percentage (first downs divided by routes).
Film Rating: Based on NFL.com prospect grades from Lance Zierlein.
Production Rating: A combination of adjusted career RYPTPA and career targeted QB passer rating.
Program Quality Rating: ESPN's College Football Power Index is used to assess program quality. The model accounts for each school a prospect attended.
RYPTPA: receiving yards per team pass attempt.
SOS Rating: Based on strength of schedule (SOS) from Sports Reference. The model accounts for each school the prospect attended.
TargetShare: A player's percentage of team targets in games played.
TPRR: Targets per route run.
YAC: Average yards after the catch.
YAC over expected: YAC over expected after adjusting for aDOT.
YPG: Yards per game.
YPRR: Yards per route run.
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Nerd note: What do these numbers mean?
