Jeremiyah Love was the highest-drafted running back since Saquon Barkley went No. 2 in 2018, and the Cardinals took him third overall out of Notre Dame off a Doak Walker-winning season. So when he went down with an ankle injury in his preseason debut against the Raiders, Arizona fans had every right to hold their breath.
The good news arrived fast. Head coach Mike LaFleur confirmed the injury won't require surgery, which is about as clean an update as you can get for a high ankle sprain.
No surgery is the headline, but it's not the whole story. Love reportedly told the team he was fine and could have stayed in the game, only to wake up sore the next day, and he's now considered unlikely to play again this preseason as Arizona targets a Week 1 return against the Chargers on September 13. That timeline is only a plan, not a guarantee, for a rookie who's supposed to be the workhorse from day one.
That's where the second-guessing kicks in. Fantasy voices piled on LaFleur for leaving Love out there for 24 first-half snaps in what was, at the end of the day, a meaningless preseason game.
Josh and Hayden call LaFleur's decision to play Love for 24 first-half preseason snaps "idiotic" in the wake of the ankle injury.
It's the classic preseason tension: coaches want reps and chemistry, fantasy managers and fans just want their No. 3 overall pick in one piece by September. Scott Barrett summed up the vibe shift succinctly, lumping Love in with the preseason names fantasy players are souring on after the injury scare.
Hayden Winks has already updated his rankings to account for the uncertainty, sliding Love into a crowded group of backs and receivers whose stock is moving heading into Week 1 prep. For now, the injury is a scare and not a disaster — but until Love is actually running routes in a real NFL game, the questions about how the Cardinals managed his snap count in a throwaway preseason contest aren't going away.