Ravens Trade For Eagles Center Cam Jurgens Deserves Two Grades: We Explain Both

The Ravens have known they needed a legitimate starting center option since the February scouting combine when star Tyler Linderbaum had a market far beyond where they wanted to go.

They also had exclusive negotiating rights to Linderbaum for the duration of his rookie contract and failed to get him extended before the 2025 season, when both he and two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson required contract extensions and neither got close. So any window into the Ravens dealing two picks, a fifth in 2027 and a second-round selection in 2028, to take on Eagles lineman Cam Jurgens , who had major back/nerve surgery in February 2025 and has not been the same since, and move him back to his natural position of center has to start there.

Any evaluation of an in-season trade with a general manager as accomplished as the Eagles GM Howie Roseman must factor in the health and current status of the player, and the situation into which Jurgens is being parachuted – bleak with Baltimore’s interior offensive as bad as any in football and getting exploited in the pass rush and unable to sustain any interior rushing presence even for the great and powerful Derrick Henry. It’s a complicated transaction that merits two evaluating grades in real-time given the player’s highly-unusual injury history.

And after having time to speak to two outside general managers about this trade and some former general managers and salary cap guy and some other current NFL personnel executives, it became clear the spectrum to use for setting a standard of what this transaction could realistically offer the Ravens.

D For Desperation

There is no way around the fact the Ravens dug themselves an ugly hole here by mismanaging this critical situation – while installing a new offense with a rookie offensive coordinator and with issues across the offensive line beyond just center. Their 30-year-old first-time play caller, Declan Doyle, always needed a proven veteran leader at this position – his mentor Sean Payton told us so this offseason – and the fact they didn’t take their pick of any available in the second round of the draft – before the run on interior OL begun that everyone in the league knew was about to begin – they probably solve this problem far more cheaply than what it’s come to now.

They weren’t fooling anyone pretty budget signings Danny Pinter and Jovaughn Gwyn were anything close to starting-caliber players (“They don’t have an NFL center on their roster, they just don’t,” longtime lineman and NFL analyst Brian Baldinger told me this summer), and when those guys got hurt (along with late signing Ethan Pocic who never looked right coming off Achilles surgery) the huge problem became suffocating.

The Ravens’ history is to draft and develop centers and they truly value them, because a lot of people thought Linderbaum went too high in the first place when they took him in the first round. They have resisted paying them top dollar going all the way back to Jason Brown. Holding 11 picks and not addressing this in a draft with myriad options was always odd and taking a hope-and-prayer pass rusher in Zion Young (yes, he can set the edge) struck us as ridiculously odd at the time and plenty of execs around the league agreed.

“You only make this move if you are desperate,” one GM told me, who also noted: "Those guys aren't exactly quick to trade picks that high (second round).

Jurgens has traveled to South America to get treatment for ongoing nerve issues and he gutted through 14 games last season but was in extreme pain and was not good on the field. The issue spread up and down his legs. The Eagles know his medicals better than anyone and were willing to unload him at a time their All-Pro guard, Landon Dickerson, is on IR and all-world tackle, Lane Johnson, just basically retired for mental health reasons. So when they do this, it raises major red flags about the medicals for a player who has a high pain threshold but carries big risks, or “serious medical red flags” as another GM put it:

“Jurgens is still a good player, he is, we have good grades on his film. And it’s a major upgrade to anything Baltimore had there. But … Howie isn’t mailing it in. He’s not tanking. No way Howie does this if he’s convinced this is a starter for him - at center or guard or anywhere - for the rest of that contract.”

Jurgens makes $16.5M this season and is essentially guaranteed $15M of his $17.5M salary for 2027 and carries that same figure for 2028, without such current guarantees.

“What are the Ravens thinking?” said one longtime NFL exec who watches the Eagles closely. “The good, but not really great, Cam, left once he had the back surgery. You don’t see trades like this for interior offensive linemen and this one had back surgery and the tape since then is not the same, including at center.”

B For Belief

Jurgens is a two-time Pro Bowl player and replaced a Hall of Fame center in Jason Kelce and learned from him before taking over. He anchored a dominating, Lombardi-trophy winning, offensive line loaded with Alphas. He is a warrior and brings a different profile and resume into that offensive line than anyone else’s, even decorated left tackle Ronnie Stanley.

"At the center position, you really are the voice of the offense out there," offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford said Thursday, hinting strongly at how much having a true vet center matters, as we've said all along.

Jurgens says he feels great this season, it was an ugly situation in Philly (although the one he’s walking into has issues, too), and the Ravens get to move stud rookie Vega Ioane back to guard, where he can maul, and perhaps they will be able to improve in pass protection and run blocking in the interior. Given the price they paid, they must.

Teams were blitzing the A Gap with abandon before Ioane stabilized things Week 4, stunts and twists were gutting them, and there seemed to be very little connective tissue between the center and guards no matter which combination Baltimore tried. Jurgens’s presence and intangibles change that, and they Ravens made big additions to their medical team this offseason and they have to hope they can keep Jurgens as healthy and pain-free as possible but he plays a car-crash position and some wonder if all the years of the Eagles running the “Tush Push” into the ground, literally, has taken years off those linemen.

“They may have just solved their biggest problem,” said one NFL personnel executive. “And if this isn’t their starting center the next three years, they just made it worse.”

But by Week 6, if indeed Jurgens is out of concussion protocol, the Ravens should have a better foundation in the middle of their line than at any point since Linderbaum left and they have to do whatever they can to maintain that as long as possible.

"He isn't a guard, strictly a center,” Baldinger suggested to me after the trade. “It allows Ioane to stay at guard where he can be the next (potential future Hall of Famer Marshal) Yanda."

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