Jets Finish Preseason with More Questions than Answers

By Daniel Feuerstein | East Rutherford, NJ | August 28th, 2026

The New York Jets hosted the New York Giants in their final preseason game at MetLife Stadium as Gang Green lost by the final score of 23-6. But in this game, the final score wasn’t the main issue on the night. The issues that were glaring were injuries, quarterback play, and the kicking department. Those players were trying to show they want to be on the team or make the practice squad to become a part of the team and help towards a winning season. While most of the starters were having a night off, it was those who would fill in those roster spots that were up for grabs.

Cade Klubnik was solid

For his final game in the preseason, Cade Klubnik got the start again since the preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He had another opening drive touchdown, mostly handing the ball off to Chip Trayanum for the one yard run for the Touchdown. After his first two series, Klubnik had a decent opening half. He completed six out of 13 passes for 59 yards, got sacked once, and threw his only interception of the preseason. On the one play where he had daylight to run with the ball, got to the line of scrimmage. Threw it to an open man, completed it, and was wiped out for an ineligible man downfield penalty. Overall, Klubnik looked good, but still needs some polishing.

“I thought Cade was up and down, and, listen, he made some plays. I mean, always on the drive was a really good drive for him. But there’s some little bitty things, man, that we got to fix as far as, like, two-minute. You know, we can’t take sacks in the two-minute. We can’t lose yards in the two-minute situation. And those are things that, as a young quarterback, he’ll learn those things. He’ll learn them quickly. He’s a very intelligent player. The good thing is they happen now, so we can look at the film and try to correct those things,” said Aaron Glenn

Sanders won and might have lost the kicking game

After a long training camp and preseason battle for the place kicker position, Jason Sanders beat Cade York and won it handily. In tonight’s preseason finale, worry returned as Sanders missed his extra point after the Jets’ only touchdown of the game and missed a 54 yard field goal that was short and wide of the right post. With that issue coming into play, General Manager Darren Mougey and head coach Aaron Glenn might have to have another kicking competition and force Sanders into another battle, as they might have to get another search going.

“I didn’t like the fact that we missed these field goals, you know, but the thing is we’re not going to panic, and we’re going to make sure we make the right decision to make sure we get either we fix those issues, or we get the right person in here. But Jason’s been good for us. I mean, he’s been good in practice. So I’m going to evaluate that and see exactly what direction we’ll go,” said Aaron Glenn

Injuries to the running back room

While we all know that Breece Hall, Braelon Allen, Isaiah Davis, and Kene Nwngwu will be in the running back room, they had two players that were looking to make a mark and force their way to a roster spot or maybe reach the practice squad. After a great first half with 12 rushes for 38 yards and a longest run of eight yards, Chip Trayanum got injured on the final play of the first half and was out for the rest of the game. If he makes the team and steals a roster spot or the practice squad, the Jets have done a good job seeing his potential.

Turnovers showed up again for the Jets

In their first two defensive series, the Jets found ways to get turnovers and made their fans happy. The top two players who showed their stuff were Quantez Stiggers and Marcelino McCrary-Ball. On the Giants’ opening drive, it was Stiggers who forced the ball to get deflected up in the air on a third-down play, and grabbing it was McCrary-Ball who ran it back for 19 yards to set up the opening touchdown drive. Then on the Giants’ second possession, they were going up the field until McCrary-Ball came in on a tackle and punched the ball out of the hands of former Jet Braxton Berrios, and it went inside the end zone. Grabbing the ball and going down was Stiggers to pick up the forced fumble. Three interceptions, a forced fumble recovery, and a turnover on downs are a good improvement for the new season that will start in two weeks.

(on Marcelino McCrary-Ball) “he’s a key part of what we’re doing. I mean, obviously, he’s one of our special team leaders. The things that he’d do in practice actually just show up in the game. And that’s what we talk about quite a bit is, man, we want to make practice game-like as much as possible and have game intensity, and it shows up. So a lot of times when we go to these preseason games, I tell our guys, let’s just go to practice. And our guys, they perform in that manner. So, man, the pitch. It was a tip ball; he was running to the ball and getting the pick, and the ability to punch the ball out as he did. I mean, that’s something that we talked about, something we practiced quite a bit, so just hats off to him for just doing what he’s always done,” said Aaron Glenn

While there were some positives and some negatives, the New York Jets are going to make their difficult decisions this weekend before 6:00 PM on Sunday to finalize their 53-man roster. then their practice squad roster and get ready for their road trip to start the season down in Nashville, Tennessee, as they will face their former head coach, Robert Saleh, and the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium.