Going into the 2025 college football and NFL seasons, it was common to see Cade Klubnik mocked to the New York Jets… with the first overall pick.

As a true junior in 2024, the former five-star recruit tossed 36 touchdowns to six interceptions in a dazzling campaign that had scouts salivating about his potential. He ranked ninth among Power Four quarterbacks with 3,639 passing yards, while adding seven touchdowns on the ground.

But instead of declaring for the 2025 draft, Klubnik returned to Clemson, and the results were disastrous for both him and the team. The Tigers went 7-6, their worst record since 2010, and Klubnik’s production plummeted, as he threw for 2,943 yards, 16 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 12 games, with just four rushing touchdowns.

It raises the question: What went wrong in 2025?

Here is a list of the most noticeable areas where Klubnik took a step back in his senior year. This will help the Jets’ coaching staff understand where the fourth-round pick needs the most development.

Firstly: Did his supporting cast matter?

Before focusing on Klubnik’s individual areas of decline, it is important to consider that he had to deal with a shaky supporting cast at Clemson.

Here is a look at a few supporting-cast metrics from some of the most notable quarterback prospects in the 2026 class.

Klubnik had one of the weaker supporting casts among his peers. He dealt with mediocre-to-poor support in five areas: run game, pass protection, drops, contested catches, and elusiveness after the catch.

Here’s the catch, though. In four of those five areas, Clemson actually offered Klubnik worse support in the 2024 season, the only exception being rushing yards per game.

  • Rushing yards per game: 2024) 173.4, 2025) 124.5
  • PFF pass-blocking grade: 2024) 67.1, 2025) 67.6
  • Drop rate: 2024) 8.8%, 2025) 8.5%
  • Contested catch rate: 2024) 45.6%, 2025) 46.6%
  • Missed tackles forced per reception: 2024) 0.124, 2025) 0.159

Given that Klubnik’s situation was even less favorable in 2024 than in 2025, it is fair to hypothesize that his production decline was mostly his own fault.

These are some of the particular areas where his game took a nosedive.

Deep passing frequency

In 2024, Klubnik showed the makings of a potential high-end gunslinger at the NFL level. His 35 deep completions ranked third in the nation, slotted between 2025 first-round picks Jaxson Dart (37) and Cam Ward (34).

Overall, Klubnik completed 35 of 78 deep passes (44.9%) for 1,240 yards, 16 touchdowns, and three interceptions.

But in 2025, Klubnik’s downfield prowess disappeared. His deep passing stat line free-fell to 17 completions on 49 attempts (34.7%) for 535 yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions.

Klubnik’s accuracy was certainly worse, as his adjusted completion percentage dropped from 51.3% to 44.9%, but more noticeable than his decline in efficiency is the decline in attempts. After launching 5.6 deep passes per game in 2024, he chucked just 4.1 per game in 2025. He simply wasn’t as aggressive.

The Jets need to study Klubnik’s tape to understand why his deep attempts declined. Was it a product of the scheme? Or did he become more hesitant after defenses had a chance to watch his 2024 tape and adjust?

Either way, New York’s coaching staff must help Klubnik reclaim his maximum ability as a deep passer if he is to reach his full potential as an overall player. It was his best trait at the height of his career, and without it, he just isn’t going to be a needle-moving NFL quarterback, even as a backup.

Play action passing

Klubnik shredded teams off play action in 2024. He led the FBS with 21 play action touchdown passes, while throwing just one interception.

That productivity wasn’t there in 2025. Klubnik only threw 11 play action touchdown passes, although he still only threw two interceptions.

More notably, Klubnik’s eye-test grading was substantially worse, at least based on Pro Football Focus’ grading system.

In 2024, Klubnik’s 84.5 grade on play action ranked 11th among Power Four quarterbacks (min. 300 dropbacks), one spot behind future No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. But in 2025, his play action grade dropped to 68.9, placing 43rd.

It will be crucial for the Jets to help Klubnik get back on track as a play action passer, as this facet of the position tends to be a key separator in the NFL. This past season, the league’s top three quarterbacks in PFF’s play action grade were league MVP Matthew Stafford (92.5), Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold (91.0), and MVP runner-up Drake Maye (90.5).

If Klubnik is to have any chance of becoming the latest surprising star passer to come out of the fourth round, he must learn to thrive as a play action passer. He’s shown the potential to do it; the Jets need to figure out why he fell off a cliff in that area.

Rushing

Klubnik’s legs were a big part of his breakout junior season. He rushed 99 times for 588 yards and seven touchdowns.

In 2024, he was less than half as prolific on the ground, carrying the ball 69 times for 223 yards and four touchdowns.

The most noticeable difference lay in Klubnik’s explosiveness as a scrambler.

In his junior year, Klubnik picked up 242 yards on 27 scrambles, a whopping 9.0 yards per scramble. But this past season, Klubnik’s 16 scrambles amounted to just 83 yards, a much less impressive average of 5.2 yards per pop.

In fairness to Klubnik, he battled multiple lower-body injuries throughout the 2025 season, including a Week 7 ankle sprain that caused him to miss a game, and a Week 10 quad contusion that he played through.

These injuries do not fully explain his rushing decline, though. Even through Week 7, Klubnik was averaging just 25.0 rushing yards per game and 4.6 yards per scramble, way down from his marks of 42.0 and 9.0 in 2024.

Klubnik dropped down to 12.2 rushing yards per game in his final six contests after the ankle sprain, so the injuries definitely affected him in this area down the stretch. Still, the fact that his rushing numbers were already significantly worse pre-injury points to a separate issue.

The Jets need to figure out why Klubnik’s rushing numbers declined and whether he has the potential to sustain rushing numbers as prolific as the ones he posted in 2024. Because if Klubnik can get back to where he was as a rusher in 2024, his NFL ceiling will rise considerably.

But if the truth is that college teams were able to easily scheme up solutions to keep Klubnik in the pocket, then he probably won’t be a mobile threat in the NFL, and that would likely cap his ceiling below starter-caliber.