![\"Jeremiyah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/jeremiyah-love-notre-dame-fight-irish.jpg\")
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(Photo by Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
One of the major weaknesses in the Minnesota Vikings<\/a>\u2018 offense in the 2025 NFL season was their running game. The Vikings ranked in the bottom 10 in team rushing yards (1,841) and had only seven carries of 20-plus yards, which ranked in the bottom seven in the league, per the NFL<\/a>. <\/p>\n As a result, improving their run game should be at the top of their to-do list this offseason. The question will be whether Minnesota decide to use the draft or free agency to find a lead running back that can carry the rushing attack load.<\/p>\n If the Vikings opt for the draft route, former Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/a> star Jeremiyah Love would be more than happy to be playing in Minnesota next season. <\/p>\n \u201cI would be blessed to go there,\u201d Love said in a Feb. 6 video from \u201cThe Paul Farrington Show.\u201d<\/a> \u201cLot of great guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Love recorded 433 carries for 2,882 yards and has scored 42 touchdowns in 41 games for Notre Dame in his college career, per StatMuse<\/a>. <\/p>\n Although Love would be a welcome addition to the Vikings should he fall to 18 and Minnesota decide that it would be too much to pass up, ESPN\u2019s Mel Kiper Jr. doesn\u2019t see the former Notre Dame standout falling outside the Top 10. In his Jan. 21 mock draft<\/a>, Kiper has Love going to the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cIgnoring positional value, Love is the second-best prospect on\u00a0my Big Board,\u201d Kiper wrote about Love. \u201cVision. Burst. Power. Speed. Receiving skills. He has it all, and he ran for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns this past season.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeremiyah Love Could Be Serious Draft Target for Vikings<\/p>\n Love has been in the draft speculation for the Vikings at No. 18. Recently, The Athletic\u2019s Alec Lewis shared his take on the Vikings\u2019 potential pursuit of Love at the 2026 NFL<\/a> Draft on the Dec. 30 edition of \u201cThe Alec Lewis Show.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJeremiyah Love is the Notre Dame product who\u2019s going to be a first-rounder and, by all accounts, is one of the premier players in this draft,\u201c Lewis said. \u201cIt just becomes a question of whether he is going to be there when the Vikings are picking and, if he is, whether it makes sense for this Vikings team, given where the roster stands, to take a running back\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI have always been a best-player-available guy. If your confidence level that Jeremiyah Love is going to hit as a premium-style player is, let\u2019s say, 70 percent, that is probably the route you should go.\u201d<\/p>\n Improving the Ground Game Via Free Agency<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the Vikings could be going the free agency route for a running back and use their first-round pick to fill another need. Furthermore, with so many names at running back and different profiles hitting the open market next month, Lewis believes this approach might be sensible for the team.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the free agent positions of this upcoming offseason, running back is one where there is a lot of depth and a lot of intriguing players there,\u201c Lewis added. \u201cSo, if that\u2019s where the Vikings wanted to save money and spend money, it would be a sensible spot.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Vikings\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Michael Reaves\/Getty Images) One of the major weaknesses in the Minnesota Vikings\u2018 offense in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-454990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}