Cade Klubnik

No. 10 · Rookie

Klubnik got his shot. A sore ankle made the call.

Cade Klubnik was not supposed to start Friday. He was the fourth-round rookie, the plan-B plan-B at quarterback for the New York Jets. Geno Smith was the one. Then Smith's ankle went sore, and suddenly the kid from Clemson was the guy.

Klubnik got two series against the Buccaneers in the preseason opener. He moved the offense. Ten points went up on the board. Not a full game, not a verdict — but enough to announce that he was not a roster placeholder.

Aaron Glenn, the Jets' head coach, watched it and saw something he recognized from the tape: moxie. Confidence. The same thing Klubnik carried in college, now on an NFL field in a uniform that was not supposed to be his yet.

It was a preseason game, two series, a sore ankle's gift. But a rookie who walks into that moment and does not flinch — that is something a coach notices. That is something a teammate sees. Klubnik is still fourth on the depth chart in his own head, but Friday he was not.

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Cade Klubnik

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