Cade Klubnik is the Jets’ backup quarterback. Head coach Aaron Glenn confirmed the rookie fourth-round pick had won the job on August 31, after the club released Bailey Zappe and waived Brady Cook. The Jets are carrying two quarterbacks on the roster and none on the practice squad, which puts a 22-year-old rookie one snap from the field.
It is the most consequential roster decision the Jets made this week, and it did not require a decision so much as a subtraction. Our Jets analysis hub follows the roster into Week 1, Klubnik’s player page carries the rest of his rookie season, and the current depth chart tracks where every position stands.
What did Aaron Glenn say about Cade Klubnik?
He was direct and unhedged. “He’s our backup quarterback, and he’ll do a good job,” Glenn said of the rookie, and when asked what earned it: “Just the confidence and how he operates and what he’s done in practice, what he’s done in the games. He’s a rookie, but he’s always learning.”
That is a warmer endorsement than Klubnik’s preseason line makes obvious. Across three games he went 21-of-34 for 190 yards with no touchdowns and one interception, added two carries for 22 yards, and was sacked four times. He started the first half of the 23–6 loss to the Giants. Nothing in there is a highlight reel. Glenn’s case rests on the practice field and the meeting room, which is where a coaching staff actually evaluates a backup quarterback and where the public cannot follow.
Who did Klubnik beat out?
Two quarterbacks with more professional experience, both of whom are gone.
Bailey Zappe was released on August 29, the day after the Giants game — a veteran cut early rather than carried to the deadline, which is usually a club telling you it had made its mind up. Brady Cook was waived on August 30 as part of the final reduction to the 53-man limit. Neither move was forced by a numbers crunch elsewhere. The Jets simply chose to go into the season with one experienced quarterback and one rookie.
It is a reversal of how this organisation has usually operated. We wrote in August about why the Jets carry three quarterbacks. This year they do not.
Why does the practice squad matter here?
Because there is no quarterback on it. The Jets’ 16-man practice squad, announced August 31, contains no passer at all — no veteran stashed for insurance, no camp arm brought back after clearing waivers.
The practical effect is that the Jets have exactly two quarterbacks in the building. If Geno Smith goes down, Klubnik plays. If Klubnik then goes down in the same game, the Jets are handing the ball to somebody who does not play the position. Clubs normally protect against that with a third arm on the practice squad; the Jets have left the slot open.
Open is the operative word. The Jets went into the week at 52 players rather than 53, and the practice squad is not frozen. Quarterbacks shake loose across the league in the first fortnight of September, and the roster has been built to take one.
What does this mean for the season?
It means the Jets have tied the season to Geno Smith’s availability more tightly than any other decision they made this summer.
Smith is in his 14th year and his second stint with the Jets, and there is no version of this roster that survives him missing extended time — not with a fourth-round rookie behind him and nothing behind the rookie. That is the risk the club has priced in.
There is a more optimistic reading, and it is the one Glenn appears to hold. Klubnik went back to Clemson for a senior season and fell to the fourth round anyway; a club that thought he was a career backup would not have handed him the job in September of his rookie year over two players who had already taken NFL snaps. Giving him the No. 2 role now is how a staff finds out what it has. The season opens Sunday, September 13 at Tennessee at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS. Full detail on Glenn’s remarks is at ESPN.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the Jets’ backup quarterback in 2026?
Rookie Cade Klubnik, a fourth-round pick out of Clemson. Aaron Glenn confirmed the decision on August 31, 2026. Klubnik backs up Geno Smith, and the Jets are carrying only two quarterbacks on the active roster.
Do the Jets have a third quarterback?
No. There is no quarterback on the Jets’ 16-man practice squad announced on August 31, and only Geno Smith and Cade Klubnik are on the active roster. The Jets went into the week carrying 52 players rather than 53, leaving room to add one.
What were Cade Klubnik’s preseason numbers?
Across three preseason games Klubnik completed 21 of 34 passes for 190 yards with no touchdowns and one interception, ran twice for 22 yards, and was sacked four times. He started the first half of the preseason finale against the Giants.