Jeremiyah Love met with the New York Giants at the Scouting Combine, and given his talent as the best offensive playmaker in the 2026 NFL Draft, it’s a no-brainer.
Love is seen by many as the best offensive prospect in the Class of 2026, and the only player the Notre Dame running back would trail in that category would be quarterback Fernando Mendoza, seemingly a lock for the No. 1 pick of the Las Vegas Raiders.
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But the Giants believe in their backfield tandem of Cam Skattebo and Tyrone Tracy, as they should, and veteran Devin Singletary agreed to a pay cut to stay with the team ahead of free agency.
So why would John Harbaugh and Big Blue consider drafting Love, maybe as high as No. 5 overall?
Because he’s that good.
It’s why the 20-year-old Love will be meeting with the Giants again Thursday for an official “30” visit at the team’s training facility, an individual with knowledge of the interview told NorthJersey.com and The Record.
The 6-foot, 212-pound Love was a weapon for the Fighting Irish last season, finishing with 1,652 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns. He set a Notre Dame football record with two touchdown runs of 90-plus yards, so it came as no surprise that Love stepped onto the field for the Scouting Combine workouts inside Lucas Oil Stadium and posted 40-yard dash times of 4.36 and 4.37 seconds.
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Of his Combine interactions with the Giants, Love said: “Really cool people. I like them a lot, I feel like they like me a lot as well. Hopefully they call my name on draft night and we can continue building better relationships. Every team has great players, but the Giants in general, being able to play with a back like Skatt, to have someone who is more of a veteran than me that I can learn from, I’d be able to take away a lot from that.”
Whether the Giants would actually send in the card with his name on it come Draft Night remains to be seen, but just the notion can do something else: make other potential suitors believe they will, which is absolutely to their benefit.
There will be talk of smoke screens and legitimate interest in Love, and the debate lies somewhere in the middle. The Giants have a good situation with Skattebo and Tracy, two popular and productive players on rookie contracts, but league sources at the Combine indicated that, behind the scenes, there was an expectation Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen would be open to the pursuit of productive running backs in free agency.
That proved true, even though the Giants were priced out of the market for recent Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III. They did make an offer before the former Seahawk landed with the Kansas City Chiefs. Keaton Mitchell, an electric playmaker when healthy, was not offered a contract as a restricted free agent by the Baltimore Ravens, so he could wind up following his former head coach to East Rutherford in the coming days.
Sep 13, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (4) shares a heart with the fans during the second half against the Texas A&M Aggies at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael Caterina-Imagn Images
We already know Harbaugh’s philosophy in team building at times runs counter to positional value. His teams in Baltimore have featured star running backs – most recently Derrick Henry – and game-changing All-Pros at inside linebacker (Ray Lewis, C.J. Mosley and Roquan Smith) and safety (Ed Reed and Kyle Hamilton).
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So maybe the suggestion that the Giants would do something unexpected at those positions is not as farfetched as it would have been with Brian Daboll at head coach, especially with general manager Joe Schoen admitting that the conversation over positional value requires some adaptability.
“Have I evolved? Yes. Do I like it? No,” Schoen said with a wry smile in Indianapolis at the Combine. “But you think about what Malik [Nabers] would get on the open market, or, you know, even Jaxson [Dart], or Abdul [Carter], you get a surplus value from taking those players where you took them. And yeah, there’s some positions where you don’t get the benefit of that. But does that mean I won’t take a player because of that? No. I’ll take the best player available.”
Which is why Chris Simms, NBC Sports analyst and the host of the “Unbuttoned” podcast, is open to it – even for the Giants who have spent recent years trying to stay afloat in the debate over the value of running backs, not to mention the polarizing marriage and divorce with Saquon Barkley.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – FEBRUARY 28: Jeremiyah Love of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish participates in a drill during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 28, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
“I know we’ve been burned by Saquon, and I get that,” Simms told NorthJersey.com and The Record. “One of the quickest ways to change – and I’ve had this conversation with my dad [Giants legend and Super Bowl XXI MVP Phil] a lot – one of the quickest ways to change your football team and make your offense different is getting an explosive running back who can come on the scene and just change everything.”
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It’s not a surprise the Giants continue their evaluation of Love among the other prospects being considered, but notable nonetheless. Just about everything is still on the table at No. 5 next month.
The Giants could use a talented inside linebacker and Ohio State’s Sonny Styles fits the bill. Safety Caleb Downs and wide receiver Carnell Tate, Styles’ teammates with the Buckeyes, also make a lot of sense.
Then there is Penn State guard Vega Ioane, who is also viewed as a blue-chip prospect, even if the position he plays is not valued as high as others. The Giants could select the 6-foot-4, 330-pounder, insert him into the starting lineup this season and not look back.
“Don’t let good players stop you from drafting players with the potential to be great,” one NFL talent evaluator told NorthJersey.com and The Record when discussing the prospects of where Love would land. “Jeremiyah Love should be at or near the top of everybody’s board.”
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The lead-up to the NFL Draft between now and late April holds plenty of intrigue for the Giants.
“Jeremiyah Love is special,” Simms said. “NBC has Notre Dame, I watch him every week, I see him on the practice field, he’s the real deal. He’s a special, special player, and within that offense that Matt Nagy runs, sometimes I just look at that and say, ‘Ooooh, wow.’”
As far as feeling the pressure of matching expectations of a high first-round draft pick, the Heisman Trophy finalist promises he is undaunted.
“I’m just being myself,” Love said. “People see that as me being a projected Top 10 first-round pick, it really doesn’t matter to me. I’m gonna go out and be myself no matter where I go or no matter where my name is called. It’s a great honor seeing people recognize me as such. I just plan on going out and proving myself right and proving everyone else right.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Why Jeremiyah Love, New York Giants remain intriguing NFL Draft match