Jeremiyah Love’s rookie season has taken another turn for the worse.
The Arizona Cardinals are placing the running back on injured reserve due to a high ankle sprain that is expected to knock him out for four to five weeks, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Tuesday.
The No. 3 overall pick had previously dealt with a different ankle sprain, Rapoport added.
Love went down in the first quarter of Sunday’s comeback win over the Dallas Cowboys and did not return. He’d missed the previous two contests due to injury.
RELATED CONTENT
Article NFL Power Rankings, Week 9: Bills claim No. 1 spot, while Bears vault into top threeabout 4 hours agoArticle Cowboys keep losing games they shouldn't -- time is running out to stack winsArticle 2027 NFL Draft order entering Week 9: Jets holding three of the top 10 picks
Love has struggled to stay healthy this season. In six games, the first-rounder generated 268 yards on 76 carries with one touchdown, averaging 3.4 yards per tote. The bulk of his production came in a 21-carry, 90-yard performance in a Week 3 loss to San Francisco.
The Cardinals used a top three pick on Love in April, believing he could add a dynamic game-changing weapon to the backfield à la Bijan Robinson in Atlanta or Jahmyr Gibbs in Detroit. We haven’t seen Love healthy enough for most of the season to know for sure if he has that kind of sustainable upside.
Arizona gave Love a significant workload in his first preseason action, handing it off 11 times and tossing him three passes. The belief at the time was that getting reps early would prepare Love for the regular-season gauntlet. Instead, he left that game with a nicked-up ankle. He hasn’t seemed right since.
Perhaps shutting the RB down for at least four games will allow him to come back fully healthy for the season's stretch run.
In the meantime, Tyler Allgeier, who sparked the Cardinals’ comeback win over the Cowboys, figures to get the bulk of the totes. Fellow back Bam Knight currently is in the league’s concussion protocol