All eyes on Cam Jurgens as he attempts to fill some BIG shoes

The Eagles have had the luxury of relying on the same dependable Hall of Fame center for 13 seasons. For the first time since 2011, the team will enter the season without their Team Captain, Jason Kelce, leading the offense. But to Kelce, they have the best replacement he could find. The Philadelphia Eagles drafted Kelce’s hand-picked successor, Cam Jurgens, two years ago. 

Draft Night

It’s hard to believe Jurgens had more important things on his mind when the Eagles selected him in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft than playing in the NFL, but finding shelter in his grandmother’s basement at her home in Pickerel, Nebraska from a tornado would qualify.

The night Cam Jurgens was drafted he was unable to do a video chat after being selected due to a tornado warning causing him to not have WiFi.

Nebraska…

“Oh, my God, it was wild. About 10 minutes before I got picked, everybody’s phone is buzzing. My phone buzzed (for a tornado warning). I get picked, and we’re upstairs celebrating, and all of a sudden we hear this loud thunder and lightning outside. I’m like ‘Alright, guys, we have to go downstairs now,” Jurgens recalls. “Grandma was like, ‘No, it’s been a great night. I’m not moving.”

Got to love Grandma!

One would be hard-pressed to find a wilder draft night story: “I gotta think I’m going to remember that for a long time. It was excitement, then all of a sudden chaos of a tornado, and thunder and lightning, and hail coming in. It was crazy.”

So if fans thought that the Eagle’s drafting competition, in the form of another OL in the 3rd round (Tyler Steen) was going to rattle him, or that he would have to change positions due to Kelce continuing to play, think again.

Growing up

Jurgens, the youngest of three children, is from Beatrice, Nebraska, where he worked on the family farm raising cattle, corn, and beans.

He was also developing the work ethic and character that follows him to this day.

The life lessons he learned on the farm in Nebraska, such as being prepared, working hard, and soaking in every bit of knowledge he could, serve him well in the game of football. Being a jack-of-all-trades on the farm followed him to the field.

A natural athlete and hard worker, Jurgens has always been unfazed by being asked to do different chores or being asked to play different positions. 

Jurgens attended Beatrice High, where played basketball, was an All-State Honorable Mention selection, and was a member of the track team, for which he won a state title in 2018. He was also a four-time state champion in the discus and three-time champion in the shot put— which runs in the family.

His mother, Beth, is a 12-time NAIA All-American at Nebraska-Kearney. She is in the school’s Hall of Fame by earning seven national titles, setting the indoor shot put record and the NAIA National Championship discus record.

But excelling at football is Cam’s thing.

 Jurgens earned Second Team All-State honors as a sophomore, and First Team All-State as a junior.

Even after missing half of the games during his senior year due to an injury, he still ended up with 57 tackles and 1 interception on defense, while contributing 318 rushing yards, 277 receiving yards, and 8 touchdowns on offense.

Jurgens played at 245 pounds in high school as the team’s tight end, but unbeknownst to him as he made his way to Lincoln, he was about to be asked to play a position that he had never played, nor even taken a snap at.

Nebraska

Coming out of high school, Jurgens was ranked as the No. 7 tight end in the 2018 recruiting class, and No. 1 in his home state.

Despite all of those accolades, and having no experience at the position, Nebraska Head Coach Scott Frost thought Jurgens could use his “nasty streak” and be turned into a dominating center.

So, in the spring practices of 2019, Frost did just that, by having Jurgens make the transition from tight end to center.

The rest is history. Jurgens dominated — he went on to start 31 out of a possible 32 games and played 2,067 snaps at the position. Per PFF, in 1,016 pass-blocking snaps, Jurgens allowed 1 sack and a meager 4 QB hits in his 3 seasons as a starter. This was good enough to be Nebraska’s highest-graded OL with the best pass and run-blocking grades. And a certain center in Philadelphia was taking notice.

Jason Kelce

“Out of all the guys that compare the most to myself, this guy is him,” Jason Kelce said of Jurgens. 

Can’t get much higher praise.

What Jurgens and Kelce lack in size they make up for with strength and their knowledge of the game, and their technique and by using leverage.

Lane Johnson agrees: “I think with Cam, him being 6–3, he gets natural leverage on some of these taller guys. And his strength allows us to create some good movements.”

Jurgens, like Kelce, can also get to the second level down the field. On stretch plays, he can be seen getting to the third level, too. There is no quit. And Kelce admires his work ethic. 

“He’s my favorite center prospect of the last 3-to-5 years, I think he can be special,” Kelce said. “I’m excited to work with him. This kid offers a seamless transition, same type of player, with exceptional upside. It’s hard to explain why I think he’s so good, it comes down to how he moves and looks. He bends well, opens his hips, is very strong for his size, is an incredible athlete for his size. On top of that, just a great temperament, solid workhorse, lunch-pail mentality.”

Philadelphia Eagles

Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles seem to be prepared to give Jurgens his shot. Unless they are willing to draft a third successor (Landon Dickerson was also thought to be Kelce’s replacement), their O-line would seem to consist of Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson on the left, Jurgens in the middle, and Tyler Steen and Lane manning the right side of the offensive line.

His transition back to center should be more comfortable than right guard was for him, as he will not worry about protecting space and he will be back in the position he played in college that convinced Kelce he would be the man to succeed him.

The time is now for Jurgens to prove his mentor and former teammate right.