Why Detroit Lions Must Consider Jeremiyah Love in First Round Despite Running Back Depth Questions

The Detroit Lions find themselves in a peculiar position heading into the 2025 NFL Draft. They sit with meaningful draft capital, a competitive roster that came painfully close to Super Bowl contention, and the kind of roster flexibility that allows general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Dan Campbell to address needs or swing for the fences on talent. The conversation around their first round selection has naturally centered on obvious gaps. Pass rusher. Secondary help. Perhaps a wide receiver if the right prospect falls. But there is a growing case that the Lions should at least seriously evaluate Jeremiyah Love, a running back prospect whose combination of size, explosiveness, and rare tools might represent exactly the kind of generational talent the organization simply cannot pass on, regardless of positional value metrics.

Before you dismiss this as homer thinking or positional draft heresy, understand the actual framework at play here. The Lions are not in a desperate situation where they must fill a gaping hole at a traditional premium position. Their defense improved significantly as the season progressed. Their offensive line remains one of the best in football. Their quarterback situation is fundamentally sound. This is not a team drafting out of panic. This is a team that can afford to be opportunistic. When the 2015 Lions had the opportunity to select a transcendent talent at a non-premium position, they found the value and the logic worked out.

Love's tape tells a specific story. He is a physical specimen who operates at an elite level of explosiveness for someone his size. The measurables project to be exceptional. But beyond the sterile world of combine results, Love demonstrates the kind of decision making and field awareness that separates good college running backs from great professional ones. He runs with conviction. He locates defenders. He understands angles. These are things that cannot be manufactured through coaching. Either a player has the instincts or he does not. Love has them.

The Lions' current backfield situation deserves genuine examination here. David Montgomery remains under contract and represents a capable NFL running back, but he is not a transformational player. He is a solid, reliable option who runs hard and occasionally breaks a big play. That is not criticism. That is simply reality. Behind Montgomery, the depth chart gets murky. The organization has invested relatively little in the running back room beyond Montgomery's presence. There is no heir apparent. There is no clear foundational piece that suggests the Lions have solved their offensive philosophy in the backfield for the next three to five years.

This matters because of how Campbell and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson want to operate. The Lions' offensive identity is built on physical football, power running schemes, and the ability to create explosive plays in space. They want to impose their will on opposing defenses. They want to run the football in ways that force other teams to respect the run game in December and January. Montgomery provides that to a degree, but Love, based on college tape, offers something even more dynamic. He is a potential difference maker in the red zone. He is a potential weapon on designed touches in space. He is a potential answer to the question of how the Lions create explosive plays without relying entirely on their wide receiver core.

The CBA implications matter less at running back than at other positions, which is a relief. The salary cap implications of selecting Love in the first round would be clean and manageable. A first round running back on the rookie scale does not carry the enormous commitment that a first round edge rusher or cornerback demands. The Lions would be getting a three year evaluation period at a relatively cheap price point. If Love becomes what his tape suggests he can become, the organization is getting a Hall of Fame caliber player on a bargain contract. If he struggles with the transition to the NFL, the financial flexibility to move on remains intact.

There is also a cultural element at play here that the Lions' front office should consider seriously. Campbell has built an organizational identity around toughness, physicality, and a certain kind of swagger. Love, from everything visible on tape and in interviews, carries that same energy. He is not a finesse player. He plays with an edge. He understands that running back is about imposing your will on the defense, and he has demonstrated comfort with that assignment. That alignment between prospect profile and coaching philosophy is not nothing. It has genuine consequences for how a player develops in an NFL system.

The argument against selecting Love in the first round is straightforward, and it deserves acknowledgment. Running backs have limited shelf lives. The position has a brutal physical tax. Investing a premium selection in the backfield when edge rusher, cornerback, and receiver sit on the board feels inefficient by traditional value metrics. The Lions could find a solid running back in the third or fourth round. They should prioritize premium positions. These are not unreasonable positions. They are, in fact, the orthodox wisdom of modern NFL front offices.

But there is a counter argument that deserves serious weight. The Lions are not rebuilding. They are not in year one of a long-term vision. They are in a window where they have a legitimate chance to compete for a Super Bowl. Everything about their roster construction, their coaching staff, and their trajectory suggests this is the moment. Passing on a potentially transcendent talent at any position because of positional scarcity value might be exactly the kind of thinking that costs a playoff team the difference between a solid run and a championship run.

Love would transform how the Lions can attack defenses in the passing game as well. A running back with his athleticism creates new design opportunities. Pitch plays in space. Wheel routes out of the backfield. Check downs on third and medium that become explosive plays. This is not abstract theorizing. This is about modern offensive football and how teams like Kansas City and San Francisco have leveraged their backfield talent to create explosive concepts.

The Lions have not made splash plays on running backs historically, and perhaps that is exactly why they should consider it now. They have stayed disciplined to value frameworks and positional priorities. That discipline has served them well. But there are moments when draft strategy requires calculated deviation from the script. Jeremiyah Love feels like that moment. Not because the Lions desperately need a running back. But because they might be passing on something truly special if they let positional logic override talent evaluation at a moment when they can afford to swing for the fences.