How many bigger sets of cleats are there to fill than those of Jason Kelce? Cam Jurgens is about to find out.

“At the end of the day just be myself,” said Jurgens about the challenge of being the Philadelphia Eagles’ replacement at center for the retired Jason Kelce. “I’m not trying to be somebody’s replacement or somebody’s next person. I’m just trying to be myself.”

And maybe that is plenty good enough.

Before Jurgens was selected in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Nebraska, Kelce himself offered an endorsement of the player. … and the plan all along was for the baton to be eventually passed.

Kelce is now an ex-Eagle – and in addition to having forged a Hall of Fame career here, he’s also a lovable folk hero.

Yes, big cleats to fill … and Jurgens knows it, as he demonstrates in his discussions on the subject.

“I think when you start putting it in those perspectives and those terms, people like to compare and you just put different things on your shoulders that you need to carry,” he said. “(But) really it’s, ‘What can I do today, what can I do to learn, what can I do to get better and how can I be the best football player I can be?”

“It’s not, ‘How can I be what he was?”

OK, maybe it is a little bit of that, though. And the good news is that when he has played (at guard last year), he’s fared well. There is some confidence that’s come as a result of that … and some focus going forward.

“I’m not worried about anything else besides what I can control,” Jurgens said, “and I think that’s all I gotta worry about at the end of the day.”