Ravens Trade for Eagles' Cam Jurgens

The Baltimore Ravens traded for Cam Jurgens, the Philadelphia Eagles' two-time Pro Bowl center, on Wednesday, 7 October (ESPN; Philadelphia Eagles; Baltimore Ravens). The center is the player in the middle of the offensive line, the group of big players who protect the quarterback and clear space for runners, and he passes the ball back to the quarterback to start each play. The Pro Bowl is the league's all-star game.

Baltimore sent the Eagles a 2027 fifth-round draft pick and a 2028 second-round pick. In return the Ravens received Jurgens, 27, and a 2027 seventh-round pick (Philadelphia Eagles; Baltimore Ravens). Draft picks are the turns each team gets in the yearly draft to choose new players, mostly from college, and a second-round pick is a valuable one. Jurgens cleared his medical check, known as a physical, on Wednesday, according to Pro Football Rumors.

The deal came a day after the Eagles' longtime right tackle, Lane Johnson, retired, so Philadelphia's line changed for the second day in a row (ESPN; NFL.com).

Baltimore had been trying all season to replace Tyler Linderbaum, its Pro Bowl center, who signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in March (ESPN). The Ravens signed three experienced centers, Danny Pinter, Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic, and all three went on injured reserve, the list for players ruled out for at least four games, before October (Baltimore Ravens; ESPN; USA Today). That forced the team to move its rookie first-round pick, guard Olaivavega Ioane, to center (ESPN; Baltimore Ravens).

"Cam is a player we have long admired going all the way back to the draft process," said Eric DeCosta, the Ravens' general manager, the executive in charge of building the roster. "He's a young foundational piece along our offensive line -- a great scheme and cultural fit who will contribute quickly in Baltimore" (Baltimore Ravens; ESPN). The Ravens' own website called it the club's biggest trade since it got linebacker Roquan Smith from the Chicago Bears in 2022 (Baltimore Ravens).

Jurgens was a second-round pick out of Nebraska in 2022. He was picked to succeed Jason Kelce, the longtime Eagles center, and took over the job after Kelce retired following the 2023 season (NFL.com; Philadelphia Eagles). He was the Eagles' center in 2024, when they won the Super Bowl, and made the Pro Bowl that season and again in 2025 (Philadelphia Eagles; NFL.com). Before the 2025 season he signed a four-year contract extension worth $68 million, and he is under contract through 2029 (Baltimore Ravens; ESPN).

This season went differently. After the opening week, the Eagles moved him from center to left guard, a position beside the center, when guard Landon Dickerson went on injured reserve. Jurgens had never played left guard as a professional and struggled there (ESPN; Philadelphia Eagles).

Howie Roseman, the Eagles' general manager, said the team had not been looking to move Jurgens, but talks with Baltimore picked up over the previous 24 hours until he saw the deal as a "win-win" (ESPN). He said that between Drew Kendall's play at center, the draft picks and the money freed up to sign players, the Eagles were "getting four players for one" (ESPN).

Jurgens will not play straight away. He is in the league's concussion protocol, the medical steps a player must clear after a head injury, having reported symptoms after Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Rams (ESPN). Ioane is expected to stay at center on Sunday night at the Atlanta Falcons, and Jurgens is expected to make his Ravens debut next week against the Cleveland Browns (ESPN; Baltimore Ravens, citing ESPN's Adam Schefter). "Mentally, he is at a really high level, I would say," said Jesse Minter, the Ravens' head coach. "We will have to catch him up" (ESPN).

The timing matters for Baltimore. Its quarterback, Lamar Jackson, hurt his ankle in the fourth week of the season, and NFL.com noted that Jurgens may be snapping the ball, passing it back to start each play, to the backup, Tyler Huntley, in the coming weeks (NFL.com). The Eagles, meanwhile, play the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, with guard Willie Lampkin in line for his first NFL start (ESPN).

What a reader can take from Wednesday is that both teams answered a problem on their offensive line in one deal. Baltimore paid a high pick to fix the middle of its line, and Philadelphia, a day after losing Johnson, chose to take the picks and trust a younger center.