Content available exclusively for subscribers
This is the perfect story for the modern media marketplace.
ESPN Headline – “Did the Jets finally find their Tom Brady or Brock Purdy in rookie QB Cade Klubnik?”
I give the writer, Rich Cimini, credit for this. In an ever-changing media landscape, you need to evolve.
Cimini is a veteran writer, and clearly knows what drew people’s attention 20 years ago, doesn’t work as well now.
You need to get the public, with attention spans seemingly dwindling by the day, and a lot of clickbait trying to draw their interest, to click on your story.
Writing a long feature on what was wrong with the Jets’ run defense last year is not going to get a lot of clicks in 2026.
But throwing out the idea that a fourth-round QB could turn into their Brady or Purdy is going to get clicks and might go viral.
Now, reading the article, which was not long, it didn’t oversell the player. It was more about teams’ dreams of a middle-to-late-round QB becoming a special QB.
Right now, with Klubnik, I’m seeing a solid #2 QB (but not immediately, like in Week 1 – that would be a bad plan).
Why?
Simple.
Processing.
Brady was an elite processor – great at going through progressions – one, two, three, checkdown, great at seeing the whole field, reading defenses, manipulating safeties with his eyes.
And this might surprise some people who don’t follow the San Francisco 49ers closely, but Purdy is also an elite processor.
“When it comes to playing quarterback, processing information quickly, Brock Purdy is right there with a guy like Joe Burrow,” said Fox Sports NFL analyst Mark Schlereth on his podcast.
Purdy’s issue is staying healthy because he’s not a thickly built guy, but he’s in the upper echelon as a processor.
Klubnik, like a lot of QB prospects these days, is too often a one-read guy.
“When the first read isn’t there, his field vision is average, and he’s not good enough off-platform/out of structure to succeed at a high enough rate,” wrote NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein for NFL.com.
Zierlein had Klubnik ranked as a sixth-round pick, and the Jets grabbed him in the fourth. Take that for what it’s worth. Zierlein has one worldview of the player, and Darren Mougey and Frank Reich have another. We will see who is right.
But this issue with his field vision, a common concern for QBs coming from the college ranks these days, is a reason, right now, it is hard to see him becoming the next late-round franchise QB.
“Loses firmness of platform as he works through his progressions,” wrote Zierlein. “Below-average field vision to quickly diagnose coverages.”
Cimini pointed out in his article that Reich described Klubnik as “pretty charismatic,” with “high emotional intelligence” and “natural leadership instincts.”
That is all great, but none of that has anything to do with seeing the entire field well.
Maybe Klubnik will buck the odds and increase his field vision on the NFL level from what he displayed in college.
When you say “process,” some people assume you are questioning somebody’s intelligence.
Absolutely not!
I can’t tell you how many QB prospects have passed through Jets camp over the years who were extremely bright young men, worked their tails off, learned the playbook backwards and forwards, but when the real bullets were flying on game day, they did not process well.
Book smarts and street smarts have less to do with QB processing on game day than most people realize.
You could go on to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but not be good at processing at QB on game day.
It’s a Rubik’s Cube on steroids.
I’m not hating on Klubnik, and the Jets were smart for taking a flyer on him in the middle rounds. He has a lot of natural ability.
But the ability to process at the NFL level at the QB position is so freaking hard.
Let’s see how he does in this area before we even think about him as a potential late-round steal.
July 20, 2026
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Tuesday.
