'We'll See!' Eagles' Nick Sirianni Not Ready to Make Decision on Jason Kelce's Replacement
By Ed Kracz
Nick Sirianni threw some cold water on the assumption that Cam Jurgens will start at center and Tyler Steen at right guard when the Philadelphia Eagles open their season in Brazil on the first Friday of September.
The Eagles head coach talked to reporters gathered in Orlando for the NFL Owner’s Meetings during a half-hour breakfast with NFC coaches early on Tuesday morning.
The Eagles, of course, are looking for a replacement for the retired Jason Kelce and everybody assumed it would be Jurgens, who was drafted in the second round two years ago after Kelce watched film on Jurgens at the University of Nebraska and then signed on him being his replacement.
Asked if Jurgens was definitively going to be Kelce’s replacement, Sirianni said: “I don’t have to make that decision for a long, long time. We’ll see. We have a lot of time. We have walkthroughs to go through, we have training camp, we have OTAs.
“Cam’s got a ton of reps. Jason didn’t take every snap at center last year in practice. I’m really confident he can do it, but we’ll see what happens.”
Landon Dickerson got snaps at center in the regular-season finale last year, but the reason for that was because Jurgens was banged up. Still, Dickerson was another player drafted in 2021 with the thought being he would be the player to replace Kelce. Except Kelce kept right on playing, until announcing his retirement on March 4.
Sirianni talked about no longer having Kelce on the team after sending him beer kegs the last couple of years to try to convince him to continue playing.
“Obviously, we’re losing one of the best players not only in Eagles history but NFL history, one of the best centers of all time, so obviously there are going to be things that we have to work to replace with that,” he said. “But what’s great is these guys have been around Jason for three, four, five, six, seven years. So, we’ll see who that is at center, we’ll see who that is at right guard.”
Steen was a rookie third-round draft pick last season. He made one start, against the Dallas Cowboys in the team’s first meeting of the season but got just 71 snaps all season long, playing in 11 games.
“Steen has a lot of different qualities,” said Sirianni. “He’s versatile. I think he can do a lot of different things. When you get guys that are versatile, there’s flexibility there with what you can do with him - what piece goes where, but we’re excited about him.
“…I’m excited about his development, some of the minutes that he got last year and I think that he’s a great option and we’ll see what happens.”