Cardinals GM Reveals Confusion Before Jeremiyah Love Phone Call During 2026 NFL Draft

Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort divulged Friday that there was a delay in making the team's selection of running back Jeremiyah Love official on Thursday due to a mixup involving his phone number.

Speaking to Saad Yousuf of The Athletic (h/t Pro Football Talk's Charean Williams), Ossenfort said, "If you want me to tell you the honest-to-God truth, we had the wrong phone number. The phone number that we were given was the wrong one. That was the little bit of the delay. We got that straightened out, and we called Jeremiyah and we got ahold of him. That's what the delay was—technical difficulties. There [were] very minimal [trade] conversations. There was some surface-level, but nothing that came anywhere close to getting us to move off the pick."

The Cards owned the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, and after Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza went to the Las Vegas Raiders and Texas Tech pass-rusher David Bailey was taken by the New York Jets, Love was the next player to come off the board.

There was some thought that the Cardinals would be a trade-down quarterback in order to take Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson or fill other needs while accumulating picks, but no deal came to fruition.

In Love, the Cardinals got a player who was viewed as far-and-away the best running back and possibly the best overall player in the entire draft.

Love enjoyed highly productive collegiate seasons at Notre Dame in each of the past two seasons, rushing for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2024, and 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2025.

Jeremiyah Love highlights

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As a result, Love was a unanimous All-American, finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting and won the Doak Walker Award as the top running back in the nation last season.

Despite Love's accolades and skill set, his selection at No. 3 still came as a surprise to some due to the Cardinals' running back situation.

They signed former Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier in free agency this offseason, plus James Conner and Trey Benson are set to return.

Conner is coming off a season-ending foot injury and Benson is oft-injured, though, which may have made running back a significant need in the eyes of those in Arizona's front office.