The news was shocking – less than a day after Lane Johnson retired from the NFL, the team traded Cam Jurgens to the Ravens.

The Eagles sent the banged-up Ravens Jurgens to the Ravens in order to move up from the seventh to the fifth round in this year’s draft and acquire another 2028 second-round pick.

We have agreed to trade C Cam Jurgens and a 2027 7th-round pick to Baltimore in exchange for a 2027 5th-round pick and a 2028 2nd-round pick. https://t.co/8BtXXXtl2K

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 7, 2026

Jurgens sacrificed his body for the Super Bowl two years ago and, unfortunately, he hasn’t been the same player since.

The Eagles did the right thing by paying him a second contract and sticking by him last season, but when he came back this season and was replaced by Drew Kendall, who played better at center, and then was borderline unplayable at guard, it was certainly time for the Eagles to move on.

Cap-wise, the Eagles are left with a cap hit over $14 million next year in dead money on the Jurgens deal. That isn’t great, but his dead cap to remove him from the roster would have been nearly $17 million next year, so it does save them a bit of space this year, next year, and leaves the Eagles off the hook for any 2028 or 2029 cap hits.

Return-wise, the Eagles get off of a player they would have been better off benching and send him to a team that’s desperate for center help for a second-round pick in the 2028 draft. They do move up two rounds in day three in this year’s draft, but the main prize is a year out. That does lessen how the return looks now, but the Eagles are now setup with two first-round picks and two second-round picks in 2028 to look to make a massive impact on the team just as they get through all of the dead money from these recent moves.

Overall, the team likely improved immediately by allowing a young player to gain experience and almost certainly do at least as good of a job while clearing future contract commitments to a player who was no longer a part of the future and adds draft capital, including a highly-valuable pick in 2028.

The masses will continue to panic, but there isn’t any reason that the Eagles can’t continue to compete this year and there’s nothing to indicate that this move is part of a larger selling strategy.

Of course, the Eagles haven’t been good so that could change by the deadline, but this deal should not be viewed as an indictment on how they feel about their chances this year – it’s a deal to help them in the future that really shouldn’t negatively impact this season. That’s a trade any team should make as long as their front office isn’t worried about “optics” to the crazed masses.