The Number 3 Overall Pick Is Saying the 2026 OROY Trophy Doesn't Matter, And The League Noticed
Alright, so you know the buzz. Every offseason, there's always that one guy, right? The phenom everyone's hyping up to tear the league apart. This year, it's Jeremiyah Love, picked third overall by the Cardinals, and man, the dude absolutely dominated college football. We're talking nation-leading rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, overall touchdowns for two straight seasons at Notre Dame! He won the Doak Walker Award, was a Heisman semifinalist. You'd think he's already planning his Offensive Rookie of the Year acceptance speech, but get this, he told NFL.com he has NO personal goals for his rookie season. Seriously, NONE. What?!
Dude Was an Absolute Monster in College, So What Gives?
This isn't some underdog story, folks. Love was a certified superstar at Notre Dame. For two straight years, he was the guy, leading the entire country in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and even overall touchdowns. Think about that for a second: the best running back in the nation, winning the Doak Walker Award in 2025, and making it all the way to a Heisman Trophy semifinalist. The guy is a pure playmaker, a force of nature. The Cardinals clearly saw that raw, undeniable talent, snatching him up as the third overall pick. Everyone expects him to get a ton of chances to keep doing exactly what he did for the Fighting Irish, carving up defenses and racking up stats.
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He's Not Chasing Awards, He's Chasing Team Chemistry?
So, with all that individual success and all this hype, you'd bet he's eyeing that OROY trophy, right? Vegas even has him as the favorite right now, ahead of guys like Fernando Mendoza and Carnell Tate. But nah, Love says he's not even thinking about it. He laid it out plain and simple on Monday, "I’ve learned throughout my time playing football, the personal goals aren’t going to get you really where you want to get to. It’s all about the team at the end of the day." He continued, "As long as you do your part on the team, usually you’ll get the personal accolades and the personal goals that you have in your mind." His actual goal for his rookie year? "To jell really well with this team and do whatever coach [Mike] LaFleur wants me to do, and do it to the best of my ability." He even doubled down on that mindset, saying, "That’s kind of how I’ve always been. Never really been the type to set . . . well, I’ve always been the type to..."
It's wild, man. A top-3 pick, a favorite for OROY, and his entire focus is purely on the team. It's a mentality you gotta respect, especially coming from a rival in our own division. We've seen plenty of guys come into the league with all the personal hype in the world, only to fall short because their ego got in the way. Maybe this team-first approach is the secret sauce for Love, a way to actually live up to that insane potential.
Look, it's not every day you hear a prospect this hyped up talk like this. Is it genuine? Is it smart? We're gonna find out when the pads come on and the season officially kicks off. What's at stake for him? Everything, really. His rookie season sets the tone for his entire NFL career, and if he can back up that team-first talk with the kind of on-field production he had in college, then the rest of the league, and definitely us up here in the Emerald City, will be watching closely. You know we're always keeping an eye on the top talent heading into the NFC West. We'll be tuning in to see if his 'no personal goals' philosophy translates into massive team success for the Cardinals, and what that ultimately means for the rest of the division once games start counting.
This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.