Initially, this trade was a shock to me, considering the inexperienced IL depth behind Cam. However, the return we got for him was too good to refuse.
This exchange seemed to beg the question of whether or not the Birds were giving up on this season, after just 4 weeks. I don’t believe that is the case.
Pro Football Reference (PFR) has a metric that assigns a Average value (AV) to each player at the end of each season. It is supposed to take into account several advanced metrics, some being the same for all players, and others being different, depending on position, to arrive at a single number. The idea is to assign a A.V.so that a player’s value to the team can be compared to that of other players at all positions. Only regular season performances are considered, and players receive additional credit toward awards such as MVP, All-Pro, and ProBowl nods.
Being a numbers nerd, I did some research to see exactly what we were losing with Cam. PFR AV was somewhat revealing. I looked at the A.V. of the 5 starting OLs for each year Cam was a starter (’23, ’24 and ’25), and here are the results:
* = ProBowl
★ = 1st team All-Pro
Player @ ’23 A.V. + ’24 A.V. + ’25 A.V. =Total A.V.
Jordan Mailata @ 8 + 10 + 8 = 26
Landon Dickerson @ 8* + 9* + 6 = 23**
→ Cam Jurgens @ 4⁶ + 9* + 7* = 20²²**
Kelce/Becton/Steen @ 13★* + 7 + 7 = 27★*
Lane Johnson @ 13* + 12* + 5⁹ = 30³⁴**
NFL buzz tells the same story; and they consider PlayOff performances in their ratings. Here are the OL holders NFL buzz Overall scores (OVR) for each year, along with their snap-based total weighted average (AVG), for all 3 seasons combined:
Player @ ’23 OVR Score • ’24 • ’25 ≈ AVG
Jordan Mailata @ 98 · 100 · 99 ≈ 99
Landon Dickerson @ 69 · 92 · 64 ≈ 76
→ Cam Jurgens @ 43 · 55 · 57 ≈ 53
Kelce/Becton/Steen @ 92 · 74 · 80 ≈ 82
Lane Johnson @ 94 · 100 · 89⁵⁷ ≈ 96⁸³
So Cam had the lowest OVR scores each year, in addition to total weighted AVG. Considering Fred Johnson’s shots in 2025 also has no real impact on the results (noted in superscript).
It’s important to note that Cam played RG in his 1st year starting (’23), before moving to C. And in ’23, J.Kelce was C, while in ’24, M.Becton was RG and in ’25, the RG was T.Steen. Additionally, L.Johnson only started 10 games in 25, while F.Johnson was the primary starter for the rest. Fred had a A.V. of 4, bringing RT to a total A.V. from 9 for last season.
I’m not sure anyone needed to see this to understand that Cam has been our weakest link over the last 3 seasons, but here he is. Plus, I don’t think he really deserved his ProBowl 25 nod. If you take away the extra credit everyone received for awards, Cam is pretty much the weakest link in every season, according to PFRindividually too – not just cumulative.
I’m not trying to poop on Cam, who is obviously hurt. He helped us win a SB, even while playing out of position in his first year starting, playing only 11 games that season. But even though he had started all 17 regular season games that year, he still only expected one A.V. ≈ 6 (full season projection in superscript), which doesn’t really change the final result.
This decision is therefore simply logical, statistically; and this data does not even take into account this current season (NFL buzz OVR score = 26). I wouldn’t be surprised if Landon was next to go, if Howie could once again work his magic with another injured player.
I wish nothing but good luck to Cam. He will forever hold a place in my heart.
Go birds!
Gn sports
