The New York Jets made sure of it, trading up in the fourth round to grab the former Clemson<\/a> quarterback with the No. 110 overall pick. He was the fifth signal-caller selected in the 2026 draft.<\/p>\n \u201cThe process was awesome,\u201d Klubnik said. \u201cIt was fun. It was a great time. But excited to go be a Jet. Pumped and really thankful for this opportunity\u2026 I\u2019m excited to go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n New York showed clear intent by moving up 18 spots in a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals, sending away two picks to land him. That decision wasn\u2019t lost on Klubnik.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows their interest in me\u2026 I kind of woke up this morning thinking, \u2018I hope the Jets pick me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Even with an uneven 2025 season, Klubnik leaves Clemson<\/a> with major production and experience, finishing among the program\u2019s leaders in multiple passing categories while helping guide the Tigers back to the College Football Playoff during his career.<\/p>\n He also built a strong connection with the Jets\u2019 staff before the draft, including head coach Aaron Glenn and offensive coordinator Frank Reich.<\/p>\n \u201cI had multiple meetings with them and had a workout with them,\u201d Klubnik said. \u201cI feel like I always clicked really well with their staff\u2026 really excited to go to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, his focus shifts to proving himself at the next level.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Klubnik said. \u201cI\u2019m a competitor\u2026 excited to get in that room and go to work. I already told Coach Reich, send me the playbook tonight\u2026 I think my best ball is ahead of me.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact us\u00a0@Clemson_Wire<\/a>\u00a0on X, and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for ongoing coverage of\u00a0Clemson Tigers<\/a>\u00a0news and notes, plus opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 27, 2026, 10:23 a.m. ET Things didn\u2019t unfold exactly how Cade Klubnik once envisioned heading into his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,9,11,10,40626,29129,27744,948,33519,33522,29975,3723,950,3712,1328,949,682],"class_list":{"0":"post-211235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-sstssportscollegeclemsonfootball","13":"tag-sstsnfootball","14":"tag-tag2026-nfl-draft","15":"tag-tagamerican-football","16":"tag-tagclemson-football","17":"tag-tagclemson-tigers-football","18":"tag-tagcollege-football-playoff","19":"tag-tagcollege-sports","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnfl-draft","22":"tag-tagoverall-positive","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/87249965007-420.jpg\")