Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love Tipped to Be Top-15 Pick in Ex-NFL GM’s Surprising Verdict

Notre Dame returns as one of the most interesting squads this year. Marcus Freeman led the Irish through a brilliant run last season, finishing with an appearance at the National Championship game. The Irish will return with some key players for their 2025 campaign, hoping to finish the job this year. One of them is their star RB, Jeremiyah Love. Leading the rushing attack this year, Love is likely to put forward a great season before the 2026 draft. A former NFL GM thinks he might go as a top-round pick, even.

After PSU’s Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, Jeremiyah Love is a star RB primed to light up the field. Last year, Freeman’s RBs tallied 338 carries, 2,206 yards, and totaled 27 TDs. Love’s yardage amounted to a little over half of that total. Ja’Juan Seider, the Irish’s new RB coach, will be shaping Love for a big season in 2025. That is now more likely to happen because Seider was the genius behind Singleton and Allen’s development. Love has 234 carries for 1,510 yards in the bag already. The RB’s current season’s additions can make him a top draft pick, too, according to Ron Carthon. Carthon was the GM for the Tennessee Titans in 2023 and 2024.

He said in a July 10 episode of CBS Sports’ With The First Pick, “I do think this guy probably has top 15 talent if you’re being honest… I didn’t have Ashton Jeanty as a high-rated guy for me coming into the season either. But we see what a productive, like, crazy statistical year can do for you. So, if Jeremiyah Love goes out and rushes for 1,800 yards and puts the ball in the paint 20 times this year, then he’ll be a consideration for being a top-10 pick.” If Love does go on to be a first-round pick, he will be part of a unique history in Notre Dame’s draft record.

In the past 10 drafts, only 4 Fighting Irish RBs have been selected. Should Love reach the ceiling set by Carthon, he will be the 5 RB in line. And, he looks primed to help Notre Dame get over a tiny blip of not having any first-round picks this year. Love will have a bigger responsibility this season because the seasoned dual-threat QB, Riley Leonard, is now in the NFL. After Love, Leonard came 2 on the team leaderboard when it came to rushing yards. Love will lead the Irish’s run game with  Jadarian Price at his side, and a room that is going to be the biggest competition to that of Penn State’s. And should the star RB do what everyone expects him to, he might go to a franchise that once favored Jeanty.

Jeremiyah Love fit for the Chicago Bears?

Love has skills that not many RBs in college football can match up to. That might make him a target for the Chicago Bears, according to ESPN. “The Bears were rumored to be interested in Ashton Jeanty had he fallen to them in the 2025 draft, so perhaps 2026 is when they’ll get a running back. Love was one of the best running backs in the country last season as a sophomore, rushing for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns. He is a bruising runner at 6-foot and 206 pounds but can also break off big plays, see his 98-yard TD against Indiana in the first round of the playoffs — and shake tacklers in space. That, plus his receiving skills, makes him the perfect feature back for new coach Ben Johnson‘s offense.”

With Jeanty off the board in the first round itself, the Bears busied themselves using their picks on other positions. They chose their first RB of the 2025 draft in the seventh round, Kyle Monangai. One of the franchise’s most pressing needs was to fix their rushing game, coming the third worst last season, according to ESPN’s Jordan Reid. And that’s why the analyst thinks Love, with his “electric” performance, can be a worthy successor to D’Andre Swift. With Ben Johnson as HC, the Bears can have a promising offense with Love in play, and Caleb Williams in the mix, according to Sports Illustrated’s Nick Shepkowski.

Jeremiyah Love will be backing a new QB1 for the second time in his Notre Dame career. Whoever that might be, the RB assures potential and a neat run game, which will very likely take him to the top picks in the NFL future.