{"id":593563,"date":"2026-04-19T11:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/593563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:57:13","slug":"2026-nfl-draft-mel-kiper-jr-reveals-where-cade-klubnik-stands-among-qb-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/593563\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft: Mel Kiper Jr. reveals where Cade Klubnik stands among QB prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an up-and-down senior season at Clemson<\/a>, Cade Klubnik<\/a> is hoping to hear his name called in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> next week. He presents an interesting case for teams, and ESPN\u2019s Mel Kiper Jr. thinks he could make a case for the third quarterback to come off the board.<\/p>\n

The wide expectation is that Fernando Mendoza<\/a> and Ty Simpson<\/a> will be the first two quarterbacks selected, though there are questions about who will be QB3. Garrett Nussmeier<\/a> and Carson Beck<\/a> are in that discussion, along with Drew Allar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kiper said Klubnik could also be in that mix, given his experience and athleticism, but he likely has a fourth or fifth-round grade. That\u2019s why he sees a wide range for the former Clemson QB in the middle rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s right there in that mix to be anywhere between \u2013 he could be fourth quarterback taken, seventh quarterback taken,\u201d Kiper said on a conference call with reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s not out of the realm of possibility he could be the third after, obviously, Mendoza goes one and Simpson goes. Then, the third\u2019s up for grabs between Carson Beck and Garrett Nussmeier and Drew Allar. You could throw Klubnik into that, Cole Payton<\/a>, Taylen Green<\/a>. They\u2019re all close. They\u2019re close enough that it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if any one of those guys went third.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Klubnik is probably going to be in that, I\u2019d say, early Day 3 area in that fourth, fifth-round area. I love his athletic ability. He doesn\u2019t have the wow-you-over talent from an arm standpoint. And this year, things just didn\u2019t come together \u2026 probably the offense or defense there with some of the players kind of not performing to the level expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cade Klubnik threw for 2,943 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior in 2025, but turned in his best numbers in 2024 while leading Clemson to the College Football Playoff<\/a>. He threw for 3,639 yards and 36 touchdowns that season before choosing to run it back with the Tigers.<\/p>\n

That experience is important as Klubnik prepares to head to the next level, according to Kiper. But the athleticism is also a key part of the evaluation when putting Klubnik up against the other quarterbacks in the 2026 NFL Draft class.<\/p>\n

\u201cKlubnik, I love the energy he brings,\u201d Kiper said. \u201cHe throws a pretty accurate ball. To me, he\u2019s a guy \u2013 like I said, back in August we were talking about first round, and now you\u2019re talking about fourth or fifth round. So I think he\u2019s going to go. I think he\u2019s too athletic. He\u2019s played a lot of football. He\u2019s got some good tape on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019ll probably, if he had to say, what quarterback number would he be off the board? I\u2019d say probably fifth to sixth quarterback taken, which all these guys are going to be in that same general area of the third to fifth round.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an up-and-down senior season at Clemson, Cade Klubnik is hoping to hear his name called in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[7307,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-593563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-cade-klubnik-22-westlake","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}