Top NFL Draft analyst has instant fix for Chiefs offense to squash the NFL trend Patrick Mahomes created
The Chiefs created an NFL-wide problem and Daniel Jeremiah thinks they can solve it for themselves at pick No. 9 in the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Kansas City Chiefs have an opportunity to rebuild their running back room this offseason through both free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft. One specific player in Round 1 could even help the Chiefs solve a problem that they inadvertently created for themselves many years ago. At least that’s what one of NFL Media’s most prominent draft minds believes.
In his 2026 NFL mock draft 2.0, NFL Network’s top draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah sent Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love to Kansas City at pick No. 9. Here’s his brief two-sentence description of why:
“Patrick Mahomes finally gets an elite back. If defenses continue to play a conservative shell defense against the Chiefs, Love can make them pay.”
Speaking to media members during a nearly two-hour conference call, DJ further elaborated on his reasoning for why Love is a perfect fit for the Chiefs.
Why Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love is the “missing piece” for the Chiefs’ offense
The Chiefs’ offense isn’t what it used to be, with a downward trend in explosive passing plays over the past few years. Some of that was due to personnel changes following Tyreek Hill’s trade to the Miami Dolphins in 2022. However, if you look around the league, you’ll notice that it’s not just a Kansas City problem. NFL teams have adopted a higher rate of two-high safety coverages to force some of the best passing offenses to operate with more patience, fewer explosive plays, and more opportunities to make mistakes. Basically, they want Patrick Mahomes to have to play Hank Stram’s game and matriculate the ball down the field.
One way to get opposing teams out of those two-high safety shells is to run the football effectively, creating explosive plays on the ground with fewer defenders around the line of scrimmage. An elite running back who can threaten as both a runner and receiver is something that NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah believes the Chiefs have lacked. It’s easy to see why when you find that Kansas City had just three runs of 20+ yards in 2025, and only one of those runs came from a running back.
“Yeah, I’ve just kind of felt like that was a missing piece for them,” Jeremiah told reporters. “I think the Chiefs, and Tyreek Hill, with him being back in the news and being released, and we’ll see if he ends up back in Kansas City. But I think he was a really key player in that offense, was a really key contributor to changing the game. I really think because of how explosive and dynamic that Chiefs team was, you saw this shell coverage kind of take over the league. Two-high looks, willing to concede some yards underneath in the passing game and even in the running game, and just we’re not going to let you throw the ball over our heads, we’re not going to give up explosive plays. That was really kind of a direct result of how dynamic that Chiefs offense was and in some degree, the Rams as well. But I always thought that, man, with the looks that they see, if you had a dynamic back who, not only can run the ball and make you pay for those looks, but someone with the safeties and everybody so deep, if you had one-on-one routes, like the best matchup in football would be Jeremiyah Love against a linebacker. You get a chance to get explosive without having to throw the ball down the field. So, that offense in Kansas City has been everything, quick underneath, quick underneath, because of the looks they’re getting, but they haven’t been able to make people pay for those looks. And I think this is an opportunity as a runner and as a receiver to really, really make some teams pay for how they play Kansas City.”
Just how much of a big-play threat is Jeremiyah Love? Over his final two seasons at Notre Dame, he recorded 22 rushes of 20+ yards. In 2025 alone, Love had 37 runs of 10+ yards and 15 runs of 15+ yards. That’s more than enough to force opposing defenses into a no-win scenario. If you move an extra defender into the box to defend the run, it opens up the deep passing game. If you defend the pass with the two-high looks, you get gashed by Love on the ground or out of the backfield as a pass-catcher.
Some fans might say pick No. 9 is too high to take a running back, especially after taking Clyde Edwards-Helaire at 32 overall back in 2020. However, if Love helps solve a problem that the Chiefs have been trying to address for years, it’ll be worth the risk and financial investment.
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