If the Kansas City Chiefs want to reduce the burden on Patrick Mahomes, Mel Kiper Jr. believes the answer is sitting near the very top of his draft board.
In his second mock draft ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft, the longtime ESPN analyst again projected the Chiefs to select running back Jeremiyah Love with the No. 9 overall pick.
While other selections shifted from his previous projection, Kiper held firm on Kansas City’s direction and his reasoning centers on offensive balance.
“[Jeremiyah] Love is No. 2 on my Big Board, showcasing elite-level vision and burst. He can make a house call any time he touches the ball, and with his hands out of the backfield, he can stick on the field on third down,” Kiper stated.
“Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt are free agents, and they weren’t exactly lighting up the ground game last season anyway. Love – who had 1,372 rushing yards and 18 rushing TDs in 2025 – could bring a whole new element to the Kansas City offense.”
The context behind Kiper’s projection reflects a broader concern about Kansas City’s offensive structure. Last season, the Chiefs‘ ground attack lacked consistency and explosiveness.
With Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt entering free agency, the backfield faces uncertainty at a time when the offense already leaned heavily on Mahomes to create off-script plays.
Kansas City’s passing game remained dangerous, but too often Mahomes was forced to improvise without a dependable outlet underneath. The absence of a dynamic back capable of turning checkdowns into chunk gains limited the offense’s efficiency.
Love‘s profile addresses those gaps directly.
The 2025 season numbers of 1,372 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns demonstrate his production, but Kiper‘s evaluation highlights traits beyond raw statistics. Vision, acceleration and receiving ability combine to make Love a three-down option, capable of staying on the field in critical passing situations.
For a team drafting inside the top 10, selecting a running back can be polarizing. Positional value debates often dominate early-round discussions. Yet Kiper‘s stance suggests that in Kansas City’s case, impact outweighs convention.
A strategic shift for Kansas City?
The Chiefs‘ offense has revolved around Mahomes for years, relying on his creativity and arm talent to elevate the unit. While that formula has produced sustained success, it has also created moments where the quarterback must manufacture yards in the absence of complementary balance.
Adding Love would represent more than a personnel upgrade. It would signal an intentional recalibration, an effort to reintroduce explosiveness on the ground while easing pressure on the passing game.
Kiper‘s projection also reflects his overall assessment of the prospect pool. By ranking Love No. 2 on his Big Board, he places the running back among the elite talents in the class, regardless of position. That distinction reinforces the idea that this is not simply a need-based pick, but one rooted in evaluation.
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