By Charlie Campbell
Weaknesses:
Summary: At the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, Jurgens was a star in the workout, showing an excellent 40 time of 4.91 seconds with a fabulous 10-yard split of 1.71 seconds. He also received a lot of media attention over making his own beef jerky. While that garnered a lot of the headlines, Jurgens was a solid football player for Nebraska as the starting center over the past three seasons. Jurgens enters the next level with a lot of experience.
The first thing that stands out about Jurgens is his speed. After the snap, he quickly fires to his block. Jurgens not only immediately gets into the chest of a lineman, he has rare acceleration to the linebackers and gets to them much faster than expected. Jurgens even goes beyong hitting blocks on the second level, as his 40 speed translates to the field, where he can make blocks at the third level. Jurgens also has some athleticism and fluidity in space to get in position to help his offense.
As a run blocker, Jurgens is not overwhelmingly powerful, but he is tough and plays hard. He will fight to tie up, turn, and manipulate defenders and move them away from his back. With his quickness, Jurgens is a real weapon to pull or spring backs for gains with a key block at the second level. Jurgens is underweight and lacks special strength, so he could struggle to get a push on heavy nose tackles, and he will need guard help if he is expected to push an NFL tackle out of their gap.
In pass protection, Jurgens is rock solid. He can bend at the knee and has proper body lean. With his speed, Jurgens can glide and slide to keep himself between speed rushers and the quarterback. Jurgens’ size and weight could lead him to struggling versus strong NFL bull rushers in one-on-one blocks. Mass can give Jurgens problems already, so he might need more guard help in that kind of matchup.
Jurgens could go as high as the second round in the 2022 NFL Draft. He probably won’t go lower than early in the fourth round. In time, he could develop into a solid starting center.
Player Comparison: Chris Myers. Jurgens reminds me of the former Texans center Chris Myers. Myers had a 10-year career, and in his prime, he was a Pro Bowl center in Gary Kubiak’s zone scheme, opening holes for Arian Foster. Like Jurgens, Myers (6-4, 286) lacked ideal weight and strength but made it up for it with quickness. In the NFL, Jurgens could end up being a center similar to Myers.
RELATED LINKS:
2022 NFL Mock Draft: Charlie’s | Walt’s
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