Breakout Candidates

Edition #1104: We look at three players who could breakout in 2026 and let Kurt Warner break down Cade Klubnik.

Good Morning ☕

Next week I’m taking a break with the family, heading to the sunny island of Sardinia before the madness of the World Cup starts.

My work schedule has been extreme leading up to the next months tournament and before I disappear for a month into a hole of football, I wanted to get away for a week with the family. So unless any big news happens we’ll be taking a little break considering how quiet it is at the moment.

Today I wanted to focus a little bit on Cade Klubnik following a conversation in the comments yesterday.

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NEWS & NOTES 🗞️

• Former Jets offensive tackle Damien Woody hasn’t always been kind to the Jets and for good reason. But he likes what he’s seeing right now:

  • “They have brought in a bunch of veteran players to kind of raise the floor and I thought they had a masterful draft where they got a bunch of guys who I think are going to start & contribute early. Listen, don’t be surprised if the Jets are come December they’re kind of flirting around that graphic in the hunt, that’s all I’m gonna say.”

• Josh Sweat is apparently upset about the direction the Cardinals are going in and SI believe the Jets should dangle Will McDonald in a trade to see if they’ll bite. Although if he’s unhappy with Arizona, I don’t understand why he’d be happy moving to the team with the longest playoff drought in North American sports…but don’t let logic interrupt a story at this time of the year:

  • “Sweat doesn’t have that problem. Throughout his career, both in Philadelphia and in Arizona, the now 29-year-old has posted quality run-defense grades alongside his strong pass-rushing skills. In the same three-year span as McDonald, Sweat has recorded 26.5 sacks while posting a run defense grade of 69.8, per PFF. Yes, Sweat is older. And the Jets (or any other team) would need to accept a higher cap hit for his services over the current player they would be giving up, but New York needs more productivity against the run this season.”

• How many regular season wins do you think the Jets will put up in 2026? Personally I’m going with 8 as my magic number. But FanDuel has the line at 5.5 wins. If the Jets win 5 games does Aaron Glenn survive?

• I came across this Kurt Warner video on Cade Klubnik and it’s an excellent look at the positives and negatives.

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3 Breakout Candidates 🟢⚪🗽

There is always a ton of excitement around the rookies but for the sake of a breakout candidate piece, I’m excluding them. Saying that David Bailey will break out or Omar Cooper Jr will break out doesn’t make a lot of sense considering they haven’t even got a base to work from in the NFL.

Instead I’ve picked out three candidates from the roster who are carryovers, who I believe will take a really big step up this season.

Starting with…

Mason Taylor