It’s almost that time.

The New York Jets will play their preseason finale tonight (7:30 p.m. EST) against their crosstown rival, the New York Giants.

Less than 48 hours later, cutdown day arrives. The Jets, along with the league’s 31 other teams, will have to cut their roster down from 90 to 53 players.

It’s a day riddled with tough decisions across the depth chart. Teams have to determine which summer standouts are likely to contribute throughout the regular season and which can be let go.

One of the positions where the Jets will be tasked with several tough decisions is at cornerback. Let’s go through the Jets’ bubble CBs and decide which ones Gang Green should keep around.

The competitors: Jordan Clark, Tre Brown, Samuel Womack III, Mory Bamba, Qwan’tez Stiggers

Most teams typically carry six cornerbacks, especially squads that hold four safeties, which the Jets are expected to do. Among those six spots, it appears the Jets have five locks:

  • Brandon Stephens
  • Azareye’h Thomas
  • Nahshon Wright
  • D’Angelo Ponds
  • Jarvis Brownlee Jr.

Assuming the Jets roll with six CBs, that leaves one roster spot for five competitors. It will be a difficult decision, as the team’s CBs have played at a very high level throughout the preseason.

Mory Bamba, Jordan Clark and Tre Brown have each logged a pass breakup this preseason, while Bamba leads the team with four, each of those coming in his lone appearance before he went down with an injury. Womack has also been strong in coverage, coming away with an interception during the team’s Week 2 preseason matchup.

Stiggers, on the other hand, is in an interesting situation.

He has the best track record with New York among the competitors, but he hasn’t played in the preseason due to the league’s concussion protocol. Stiggers returned to practice, but it is unknown if he will play tonight.

Among the names vying for that final spot, Stiggers is the only one New York drafted, investing a fifth-round pick in him in the 2024 NFL draft, though that was under the previous regime. Throughout two years in the league, he has played well on special teams but has not proven trustworthy in a rotational defensive role.

Stiggers cannot only stick around for so long based solely on special teams ability. The Jets have players like Dane Belton and Kene Nwangwu who have proven to be solid gunners and will make the team for their contributions in multiple areas.

With how competitive everything is for that final spot, special teams can’t be Stiggers’ lone case to win the job.

Keep: Womack

It’s a tough choice, but going into the preseason finale, the Jets’ best course of action is to give Womack the final spot on the CB depth chart.

First off, unlike his competition, Womack has legitimate experience playing in the regular season. A fifth-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in 2022, he’s appeared in 46 games (11 starts).

Aside from his interception, he has been very effective on a snap-to-snap basis this preseason, as his 89.9 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus currently ranks fifth among 183 qualified CBs (min. 15 coverage snaps).

Womack has the best regular-season defensive track record among the competitors. His preseason performance shows exactly why he is worth keeping around.

Practice Squad: Brown and Clark

Assuming they clear waivers, the Jets should try to retain Brown and Clark on the practice squad.

Clark has been great throughout the preseason; there is no doubt about that. However, it’s important to remember his performance when he was thrust into regular-season action last season.

Throughout six games, Clark played 100 coverage snaps in 2025 and allowed 16 of 20 throws in his direction to be completed (80%) for 140 yards and three touchdowns.

Yes, context is key. He was an undrafted rookie, and the Jets’ secondary as a whole was among the worst in football. Even with that in mind, it’s still noteworthy how much he struggled.

The same goes for Brown. While he offers NFL experience, the former fourth-round pick has struggled in coverage. From 2023-24, he played a combined 571 coverage snaps and allowed 44 of 67 targets to be completed for 613 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. He also struggled with penalties, logging 13 over those two seasons.

Both players are worth keeping around, just not on the 53-man roster.

IR: Bamba

Bamba delivered a monster outing during the Jets’ preseason opener but then suffered a knee injury that ended his summer.

During his lone outing, Bamba earned a stellar 86.0 defensive grade courtesy of PFF, the second-best on the team for that game, while tallying four pass deflections and allowing just a 57.9 passer rating on the 10 passes in his direction.

His athletic tools create added intrigue. While he is a rare 25-year-old rookie due to spending six years in the NCAA, his athleticism is elite. Measuring in at 6-foot-2 and 193 pounds, he reportedly ran a 4.27-second 40-yard dash at BYU’s pro day, which would have led cornerbacks at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine.

His 9.53 RAS (Relative Athletic Score) also included an 11-foot-1 broad jump, which would have also been the best among CBs at the combine.

Given that he is injured, the Jets could give him time to recover and place him on short-term IR to start the season, then make a decision after Week 4.

Each team has two short-term IR spots, which can be used to keep players under team control without counting against the team’s 53-man roster. That seems to be the best path for Bamba.

Look to trade: Stiggers

We’ve recently discussed the possibility of Gang Green turning some of their cutdown-day candidates into trade chips, even if it’s just a conditional late-round pick or pick swap. It’s better than flat-out cutting a player or hoping they’d sneak through waivers and make it to the practice squad.

Stiggers is one of those fringe players. If he were to get cut, it feels likely that a team in need of some special teams help would give him a chance on their 53-man roster.

Given this, it’d be wise for the Jets to scour for teams in need of special teams help around cutdown day and sell them on Stiggers. He is 24 years old and has been a valuable contributor to the Jets’ special teams unit.

However, given how crowded the CB room is and the team’s overall roster, it would not make much sense to keep him around solely for that ability. Perhaps a team also likes his defensive tape and believes he could eventually develop into a rotational role on that side of the ball.

If he is, in fact, the odd man out in the Jets’ eyes, they should try to get something in return before just releasing him.