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People around the NFL talk about competition a lot in training camp, but when the final cuts come out for most teams, it’s pretty much chalk, so where was the competition?
Most decisions are essentially made before camp starts.
This analysis is not a Jets-centric criticism, but a league-wide critique.
Matt Simms put it perfectly last week on SiriusXM NFL Radio about some of these long shots in the third NFL preseason game: “You made the team the way you played last night, but then you didn’t make the team.”
Most long shots have no shot at beating draft picks or entrenched veterans.
There is a lot of confirmation bias in these camps.
Because let’s say Jack Heflin outplayed Darrell Jackson or Jowon Briggs in camp. There is no scenario, aside from injury or a suspension for taking the wrong vitamin, that would allow him to beat them out. None.
Same with quarterbacks Bailey Zappe and Brady Cook in relation to beating out 2026 fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik.
In three preseason appearances, Klubnik didn’t throw a TD pass and threw a bad pick against the Giants.
Doesn’t matter.
Chalk.
Not putting Zappe or Cook in Canton, just saying there was basically nothing they could do to beat out Klubnik.
Once executive Kevin Boothe from the league office announced the fourth round – “The New York Jets select Clemson QB Cade Klubnik,” the competition for the #2 spot was essentially over.
If you look at the Jets cuts, the only slight surprise was guard Xavier Newman, but we touched on the issue that hurt his roster position on Friday – shotgun snapping.
The Jets needed a backup swing interior lineman without these snapping issues. Newman had these snapping issues throughout training camp.
And since another guard, who made the team for now, Kohl Levao, doesn’t have much experience at center, they traded with the Las Vegas Raiders for backup-swing man Jordan Meredith.
So, honestly, with the release of Newman actually not being a huge surprise, there really were no surprises on the final cutdown.
None.
Here is the built-in rationale teams around the league use for keeping draft picks over players who might have outperformed them in camp – “upside.”
So the case for Klubnik, who didn’t really outperform Zappe and Cook this summer, is probably that he has more of an “upside.”
So if that is the rationale in a lot of these decisions, so how can long-shots beat out draft picks, when the decision-makers can always play the “upside” card when making decisions?
Let me make this clear – this article isn’t focused on Darren Mougey, who I think had a heck of an off-season, but more a league-side criticism.
The fix is in on most of these rosters before camp.
What did cornerback Samuel Womack have to do to make the team?
Quincy Skinner, Cam Camper? Whoever.
Walk on water?
This is a yearly rant from me, so I just wanted to get it out of the way and move on to covering the regular season with whatever 53-man roster they chose.
But when teams around the league talk to you about competition entering camp, c’mon now.
How much do you really think is going on?
Not much.
It is what it is.
August 31, 2026
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