Love Tops 2026 RB Class as Only Back Above 40% Threshold
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- Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame) leads 2026 RB prospects with a BackCAST of 89.0% and a #1 Scouts Inc. ranking, but is the only back in this class to clear the 40% threshold, after nine backs did so last year.
- BackCAST projects Love is good but not generational — he falls outside the top-25 RB prospects since 1998 by score, and his listed comparables Travis Etienne Jr. and Todd Gurley posted higher marks when they entered the draft.
- Love ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash at 212 pounds, the fastest among RBs weighing 205-220 pounds who averaged at least 6.0 yards per carry in college.
- Notre Dame teammate Jadarian Price posted a BackCAST of minus-46.4% (Scouts Inc. rank: 71), cited as part of a pattern where hyped college RB duos (Bush/White, Brown/Williams, McFadden/Jones) historically underperformed in the NFL.
- Penn State's Nicholas Singleton (BackCAST 28%) projects slightly better than teammate Kaytron Allen (21.6%), despite Allen getting 210 carries to Singleton's 123 in 2025 and posting a better yards-per-carry average.
- Mike Washington Jr. (Arkansas) ran a 4.33-second 40 at 223 pounds, near the Speed Score record, but had 10 fumbles on 587 career carries — flagged as a significant ball security concern.
- Seth McGowan (Kentucky) posted a 42½-inch vertical, the second-best by a RB at the combine since at least 2007, plus a class-leading 10-foot-11 broad jump.
Why it matters: NFL teams picking at the top face a thin 2026 RB class where Jeremiyah Love is the only prospect projected to far exceed average production. The author explicitly warns against using a high first-round pick on Love, noting that mock-draft landing spots lack the offensive line quality needed to maximize his potential — leaving RB-needy teams with a steep drop-off to a cluster of mid-tier backs (Coleman, Randall, Washington) with positive but modest projections.
