Jeremiyah Love's Ankle Trending Up: Cardinals Eye Week 1 Debut vs. Chargers
Arizona's No. 3 overall pick was moving around at Monday's walkthrough after a high ankle sprain. The first injury report drops Wednesday.
High ankle sprain trending up, but wait for Wednesday's report.
- No. 3 overall pick, high ankle sprain in preseason
- 58 rush yds on 11 carries before injury vs. Raiders
- 1,372 rush yds, 21 TDs in final Notre Dame season
- Cardinals open at SoFi Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET
- First injury report drops Wednesday
Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur gave rookie back Jeremiyah Love's fantasy managers something to feel good about Monday, saying he's optimistic the No. 3 overall pick can suit up for Arizona's Week 1 opener against the Chargers despite the high ankle sprain that knocked him out earlier in the preseason. Love was moving around at the team's walkthrough and is progressing, though the Cardinals won't put out their first official injury report until Wednesday.
The injury happened during Arizona's preseason win over the Raiders, when Love hauled in a catch near the goal line and came down awkwardly. Before that, he'd looked every bit the third overall selection — 58 rushing yards on 11 carries across 23 snaps. High ankle sprains are notoriously slow to heal, so "optimistic" and "cleared" are two very different words here.
Love arrives with monster college production behind him. He piled up 1,372 rushing yards and 21 total touchdowns in his final Notre Dame season and finished third in the Heisman race. That's the kind of profile that turns a rookie into a Week 1 flex option — assuming the ankle cooperates.
The Backfield Behind Him
If Love can't go Sunday, Arizona's depth chart tells you where the touches land. Tyler Allgeier is our RB38 (#154 overall), coming off a 2025 season (17 games) of 514 rushing yards, 8 rushing touchdowns and 123 PPR points. Bam Knight sits at RB48 (#205 overall) after 93 PPR points in 12 games last year (269 rush yards, 4 TDs, plus 22 catches). Worth noting: Allgeier is trending down (-2.4 fantasy points over his last five games versus his 2025 average), while Knight is quietly up 2.4.
The bigger picture: this is a team that went 3-14 last season and kept three backs on the 53-man roster. Love is the future and, health permitting, the present. But a high ankle sprain on a rookie in his debut week is exactly the kind of thing that gets managed carefully by a rebuilding staff.
For fantasy managers, treat Love as a WATCH until Wednesday's injury report clarifies things — don't slot him into a starting lineup on optimism alone. If you're thin at running back and stashed him, hold. And if you can grab Bam Knight or Allgeier cheap as a contingency handcuff, do it before the news firms up either way.
