Don’t Draft Cards’ RB Jeremiyah Love in Fantasy Until You Hear This Soundbite!

There's a soundbite from Mike LaFleur that should make every fantasy manager think twice before spending a top pick on Jeremiyah Love.

The setup is a good problem for Arizona. James Conner is back, the Cardinals drafted Love, and Trey Benson is already in the room. That's a loaded backfield, and the show wanted to know how you'd handle it. Roll tape.

LaFleur's answer was the tell. "You want to be able to divvy that thing up," he said, talking about keeping the room fresh and using a third-down back in a perfect world. Then came the comparison that set off alarms. Like Steph Curry on fire, you don't take the hot hand out. A back, just like a basketball player, can get into a rhythm, and when he does, you keep feeding him. The depth, LaFleur stressed, is a net positive for the Cardinals.

Great for Arizona. Terrible for your fantasy team.

"You're drafting Jeremiyah Love top of your fantasy draft," Rich said. "This has got nothing to do with winning games for the Arizona Cardinals. We're talking about you." Spend a top-five pick on Love, and suddenly Conner is getting all the carries, or Benson has the hot hand. The crew compared it to Bijan Robinson's rookie year in Atlanta, when a committee approach strangled the upside.

The crew called it a red flag across the fantasy universe, and Rich turned to TJ to see if he felt the same dread. A committee comment in June is the kind of thing that makes you hedge on a rookie.

The counterargument is talent. Love is so good that it's going to be his gig at the end of the day, with high upside, and the projection floated on the show was 15 to 16 hundred total yards and double-digit touchdowns. Conner, though, is too good not to get goal-line work, and he's on the wrong side of the running-back age curve coming back from a serious injury. Benson's takeoff, meanwhile, has stalled the last couple of seasons. So the read landed on Love eventually being the guy, with the caveat that you have to accept Conner stealing touchdowns.

The conversation also detoured hard into Mike LaFleur's hair, a topic the radio audience couldn't fully appreciate. The bangs, the high fade, the immaculate lineup. Rich, self-deprecating as ever, declared himself jealous because LaFleur still has choices and Rich is out of them, joking about a future Istanbul edition of the show where he shows up looking like Cousin It. Someone suggested LaFleur try a ponytail or a man bun. All of it, Rich concluded, is a choice, and he's just envious there's a choice to make.

Back to the actual advice. If you take Love top-five, don't be shocked when Conner vultures the short-yardage scores. Love should be there every week, but the soundbite is the warning label. Draft accordingly.