How did Cam Jurgens and Mekhi Becton play in first NFL starts at new positions? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
When you can put up 34 points, 410 yards and 25 first downs with two offensive linemen making their first NFL start at a new position, that’s a pretty good day.
One game in, the Eagles’ two-pronged o-line experiment – Mekhi Becton morphing from a tackle to a guard and Cam Jurgens morphing from a guard into a center – seems to be working.
Jurgens played center at Nebraska, but that was three years ago. In his first two NFL seasons, he played only 32 snaps at center – 28 in 2022 in various mop-up duty and four last year vs. the Giants on the final day of the season.
So Friday was his first pro start at center, and he graded out well with a 68.7 according to Pro Football Focus, 11th-highest of all 32 starting centers. He’s not Jason Kelce, but he did fine.
“Cam had some really nice plays,” Nick Sirianni said. “You know, Cam, there were a couple plays where Cam’s getting that initial hit, whether he’s working with Landon (Dickerson) or working with Mekhi, and then getting off to that second level.
“The one play that really comes to mind is Saquon (Barkley’s) touchdown run, where it looks like him and Mehki are working a combination block and Cam gets that block in with him, that made-block as we call it, to get him up into the second level. I thought those were really good plays there.”
Yeah, there were some snapping issues, and that’s something Jurgens has to fix.
In the first quarter, he snapped the football to Jalen Hurts before he was expecting it and the Packers recovered at the Eagles’ 13-yard-line and got a field goal out of it. There was also a botched snap on a 4th-quarter tush push, which meant the Eagles had to settle for a field goal.
“Obviously, any time you put the ball on the ground two times, there is a miscommunication there,” Sirianni said. “We can’t put the ball on the ground two times. Cam and Jalen touch the ball on every down, so we have to make sure we’re taking care of that football.”
Jurgens hadn’t started a game at center since college, but Becton hadn’t started a game at guard on any level. Before spring practices, he hadn’t even practiced there. And when training camp began in late July, he was backing up Tyler Steen.
But there he was playing solid football against a very good front. The Eagles’ interior line – Dickerson, Jurgens, Becton – held Kenny Clark, a three-time Pro Bowler and one of the best in the league – to just one solo tackle and no sacks, hurries, quarterback hits, forced fumbles or any other big plays.
You always take PFF grades with a grain of salt, but Becton ranked 11th out of 65 tackles with an 80.0 pass blocking grade and 20th overall with a very respectable 73.8.
“Mehki is so big, and what you saw there with Mehki on Friday night was he was controlling the guy (he was facing),” Sirianni said. “He was going against good players. That’s a good front.
“He was controlling them at the line of scrimmage and there wasn’t a lot of pushback into Jalen’s face because he is so big and so long that he was able to control there. So, I thought he did a really nice job, particularly in the pass game, of keeping the pocket firm inside.”
The Eagles overall had PFF’s 2nd-highest pass blocking grade and 4th-highest run blocking grade against a formidable defensive line.
And that’s minus one Hall of Famer and with 40 percent of their offensive line in new spots.
“As far as those two guys playing their first game at those positions … I thought they did a nice job,” Sirianni said Monday. “Cam is very natural. Cam played that position his entire life. … But I thought Mehki did a really nice job for his first game starting at guard.”