Recalling The Grit, Fun, And More That Highlighted Cam Jurgens' 4 Years With The Eagles

This is what I wrote when Cam Jurgens came to Philadelphia for rookie minicamp just days after the Eagles selected the center out of Nebraska four years ago: “It’s not clear if Cam Jurgens has a little dog Toto, though what the Eagles’ latest second-round draft pick has is tornadoes where he grew up.”

Jurgens grew up in Pickrell, Nebraska, a town of about 2,000 people in a slice of the Midwest known as Tornado Alley. On the night he was drafted in the second round, April 29, 2022, a tornado alert sounded on his cell phone.

Ten minutes later, Howie Roseman called to let him know they were taking him with the 51st overall pick. Just minutes after that, thunder boomed, lightning crackled, and hail fell in chunks. So, it was off to the storm cellar with his family to celebrate him becoming an Eagle underground, because what choice did they have with a tornado spinning around nearby?

Another kind of storm passed through the Eagles’ locker room on Wednesday. A day after Lane Johnson’s stunning retirement, Eagles general manager surprisingly traded Cam Jurgens to the Baltimore Ravens.

On Friday, the Eagles leave for London to try to snap a two-game losing streak when they face the Jacksonville Jaguars. They will do it with an offensive line that was hardly the vision only a month ago, when they had Johnson, Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Landon Dickerson, and Jordan Mailata. Now, they have just two of those – Steen and Mailata.

Leaving Behind A Legacy

Eagles center Cam Jurgens speaks to reporters on June 10, 2026. | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

Jurgens leaves behind a legacy of success, helping the Eagles win a Super Bowl in the 2024 season, his first as the starting center after Jason Kelce retired. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler, and while many Eagles fans may have wanted him benched for his struggles this season at a new position, he should be remembered for the toughness he played with, the pain he played through, and the fun he had during his four-plus seasons.

Jurgens wasn’t supposed to play in the NFC Championship game in 2024, but when Landon Dickerson went down with an injury, Jurgens came in for the second half despite a back that was in no shape to really walk, yet alone bend over to snap the ball and go block.

In the locker room afterward, Jurgens could barely move. He hobbled like an octogenarian who had just had both hips replaced to the seat at his stool and sat upright, patiently enduring questions and rolling his eyes when one hanger-on that season came over to scream at him, ‘We’re. Going. To. The. (Freaking). Super Boooowl.’

Jurgens’ entire upper body turned slowly to face the person yelling, staring blankly at him to the point where the hanger-on simply walked away without acknowledgement from Jurgens, who slowly turned back to face a couple of reporters and rolled his eyes. Presumably, that was one of the few things he could do that night when his body didn’t feel pain.

Jurgens was responsible for a sign that hung above the locker of former Eagles linebacker/fullback and current Chiefs fullback Ben VanSumeren that read, “Beware of Dog.” VanSumeren told me a couple of days earlier that he was a sleepwalker, and his girlfriend told him he sometimes barked like a dog while sleepwalking around the room

Jurgens saw the story, and the next day, he pointed out the sign to me. I laughed and said, "Where did you get that?" He said, “On Amazon.”

Jurgens may never be the player he was before his back surgery following that Super Bowl season, but he always gave everything he had.

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