Philadelphia Eagles: Cam Jurgens remains curiously unsigned

The Philadelphia Eagles have a pretty loaded roster heading into camp.

They have good depth at pretty much every position, premier talent at basically every position, and enough young, ascending players to achieve above the sum of their parts on the way to what many hope will be the team’s second-straight trip to the playoffs.

And yet, there is one player on the Eagles’ roster who, though he was in rookie minicamp earlier this summer, remains un-signed heading into the 2022 NFL season; a player many a fan is very excited to see, maybe not this fall, but potentially for years to come: Cam Jurgens.

Wait, what? Why? Why is every other member of the Philadelphia Eagles’ draft class signed, but Jurgens is stuck in his own separate category on the team’s website? Well, breathe easy, Eagles fans, for this is almost certainly not something to worry about.

Cam Jurgens will be on the Philadelphia Eagles this fall.

So why, you may ask, would Cam Jurgens remain unsigned heading into the 2022 NFL season? Could it be because of his injury history in college? Or maybe Jurgens wants to start right away and is about to hold the heck out? Oh no, is Jurgens about to retire from the game and enter the competitive field of fire fighting?

None of the above; Jurgens likely remains unsigned because the Eagles needed to maintain cap flexibility heading into minicamp. While sure, there may be some logistical issues pertaining to Jurgens’ contract, you may recall Landon Dickerson having similar issues last summer, his status as an unsigned player never impacted his ability to make it to the NovaCare Center or eventually start for the team.

While Jurgens’ situation isn’t exactly the same, he isn’t coming off a season-ending injury and is expected to fill a reserve role this fall, his cap number, which unsurprisingly will be the second-highest of the rookie class, certainly played a role in his unsigned status, as the Eagles were still looking to procure another safety and needed to maintain cap flexibility. With Jaquiski Tartt in place at an as of yet unknown figure, don’t be surprised if Jurgens is announced as having his contract signed when the Eagles convene in July.

‘Wait, so this was all a logistics issue?’ Yes; not all news is exciting.

Howie Roseman loves to manipulate the salary cap. This team routinely has one of the highest dead cap figures in the NFL and yet can continue to operate however they see fit thanks to contractual manipulations like the front office’s latest cheat code, the void year. While these practices may occasionally lead to some weirdness, like releasing Fletcher Cox only to re-sign him shortly thereafter and Cam Jurgens remaining unsigned through June, it somehow always works out in the end. Trust the process, folks.