From cattle farming to blocking bags: Inside Jason Kelce’s mentorship ahead of a potentially fateful playoff run

About 10 minutes into Cam Jurgens’ first visit to the Eagles’ offensive line room, Jason Kelce appeared without introduction.

It’s hardly like he needed one.

Jurgens was on a predraft visit to the NovaCare Complex at the time and already had built up a chance at meeting Kelce in his head. He spent time studying the Eagles center on film and partially modeled his game as an athletic center after the athletic center currently at the forefront of the position in the NFL.

» READ MORE: Check out this illustrated look at the 2023 Eagles regular season

Amid a trial by fire with Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, Kelce offered a reprieve for Jurgens. The quick-moving coach was diagramming plays on the whiteboard and going through film clips, quizzing the former Nebraska standout to test his mettle.

When Kelce walked in, Jurgens was a bit starstruck.

In a way, Kelce was, too.

“He was like, ‘I heard you grew up on a cattle farm. I just bought 10 cows!’” Jurgens told The Inquirer earlier this week. “It’s like, I’m sitting in a room with Stout trying to learn football and now Kelce is in here talking cows. All the hype and what you think, he’s just a good dude. He’s true to himself. We just hit it off from there.”

Kelce described his interest in cattle farming as “very hands-off” because of his time commitments elsewhere. His small herd of crossbred cows known for being low maintenance spends time on a bigger farm with a couple that “does all the heavy lifting.”

Eventually, he’d like to chase the fascination with agriculture he’s always had with a deeper level of investment.

“I’ve always been interested in farming,” Kelce said. “We’ve had relatives in West Virginia and people in our family’s past that have been farmers. I think my dad has always been interested in it, we started doing gardening at our house, me and him, a while ago. We don’t have as much time as I’d like to allocate to that, but I think cattle has always sparked my interest.”

From cattle farming to media and plenty more, the 36-year-old has multiple avenues awaiting him in his life after football. When that life may begin isn’t certain, although the Eagles’ wild-card round matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night begs the question.

Have the pervasive thoughts about what could be his last game crept in?

“I think it’s been natural for the last three seasons for that,” Kelce said. “Whenever you’re older in your career, you never know when that’s going to be. I try to remind guys, [and] my dad’s told me this from the moment I started playing football, ‘You step off the curb one day and that could be the end of your career.’ You try to approach every game with that mindset. But obviously, the closer and older you get to that being a realization puts it out in front maybe a little bit more.

“But the main thing is going out there and battling with each of the guys in this locker room,” Kelce added. “No matter how many more years I play or any of us play, this team is only guaranteed one game left.”

Collecting stories about Kelce in the Eagles locker room, the one that comes up the most goes back to an impassioned Super Bowl speech.

Not the speech dressed as a Mummer in 2018 that cemented Kelce in Philadelphia lore, but the one he made to teammates in a conference room in a Sheraton resort near Phoenix the day before Super Bowl LVII last February.

The contents of Kelce’s address to the team were revealed in the Prime Video documentary Kelce recapping the 2022-23 season, which ended in a 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Standing with the rest of the Eagles’ captains in the front of the room, Kelce fought back tears as he told his teammates to consider the things each of them had to overcome to get to that point.

» READ MORE: ‘Kelce’ is the most-watched documentary on Prime Video in the U.S.

Kelce pointed to former Eagles guard Isaac Seumalo’s “Frankenstein foot,” before reminding the team that running back Boston Scott “ain’t much more than [5-foot-5],” which led to an eruption of laughter from players and coaches.

“I caught a crazy stray,” Scott, who is officially listed at 5-foot-6, told The Inquirer. “The crazy part about that is, everyone is listening, everyone is locked in, and he’s like, ‘Boston is 5-5′ and at the moment I’m like, ‘You’re damn right he’s 5-5!’ I’m just so invested in the conversation, but later I was like, ‘Dang!’ ”

“He’s an inspirational person,” Scott added. “Like, he was a walk-on in college. Me being a walk-on myself, I definitely understand what comes with that. How hard it is, how people view you. Everything about that situation is tough. It’s hard to make a name for himself. For him to take that, play a completely different position, and carve out the career he has to this point? He’s an anomaly.”

The reverence Scott has for Kelce is universal in the Eagles’ locker room. The 28-year-old running back notably got emotional in a postgame news conference in 2021 when considering a costly fumble against the New York Giants that resulted in Kelce battling through a knee injury in vain.

Kelce has played in a franchise-record 156 consecutive games and is second all-time in games played for the Eagles behind only defensive end Brandon Graham. He has dealt with injuries during that stretch but has developed a reputation and an admiration for his ability to play through things that may hold others out.

“What sets him apart is obviously the passion,” said reserve lineman Brett Toth. “You’re in a position that’s very tough to get excited to do the task. You take hits off other people and it’s nonstop physical. And then you also see his durability, longevity, how he’s been able to fight through injuries, it makes other men just kind of stare in awe at him.

“I was here the year he got his elbow done and they were saying the only thing that kept it together was the brace,” Toth added. “But he only missed four reps. It happened and then he came back in after the half. He’s a man amongst men.”

Kelce leaned back in his chair and tilted his head just enough for Jurgens to hear him.

Considering how he and Jurgens are similar, Kelce instead chose to point out the key difference between them, with the young lineman within earshot.

“Cam’s stronger and more powerful than I am,” Kelce said. “We’ve played with a lot of really good offensive linemen. Cam offers a good blend of explosion, power, strength, and speed. He’s probably the fastest guard I’ve ever played with, I think that’s fair to say. Brandon Brooks, even though he’s big, he could move, too. Isaac Seumalo was a very athletic guy, but Cam is certainly, probably — if you raced [all] three of those guys, Cam would win.”

That perceived difference hasn’t kept Jurgens from earning the nickname “Kelce’s shadow” by at least one of his fellow linemen.

“That’s Kelce’s shadow,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said. “He’s amazing. You can get him out in the open space, Kelce’s shadow is going to do his thing. That dude is explosive, he’s dynamic, he’s agile, his ability to read the field — he plays center, so he can read the concepts.”

The comparisons have been natural. Jurgens and Kelce both converted to center in college after playing other positions as high schoolers and have the athleticism to show for it. Jurgens, who started as a tight end in college, even had some of the same coaching points with former Nebraska offensive line coach Greg Austin, who worked for the Eagles from 2013-15.

When the Eagles drafted Jurgens No. 51 overall in 2022, the visual of Jurgens climbing up to the second level of defenses with agility and finishing off blocks with power evoked memories of Kelce doing the same with the Eagles for more than a decade.

On a Bleacher Report draft show when the pick was announced, Kelce said that Jurgens was his favorite draft prospect. Even he could see the resemblance.

“Out of all the guys that compare the most to myself, this guy is him,” Kelce said on the live show.

Being the heir apparent for a franchise legend can be a daunting task. Even following Kelce in a drill can present a challenge for whoever is behind him when the veteran showcases seemingly flawless technique only to point out its faults.

“You’re chasing perfection,” Toth said. “But he’s also the professional to recognize that he’s not perfect so he can always get better at something. While everyone else sees what he puts on tape and it’s like, ‘Holy [crap], if only I could do that.’ It’s a pretty tough standard to live up to by any means. Just being able to kind of see it in action and see it the past few years, it’s something you tell your kids about.”

Perhaps that’s why Jurgens doesn’t view himself as Kelce’s eventual successor, per se. He started his rookie season working mostly as a center with Kelce recovering from elbow surgery, but eventually began splitting time between the center and guard positions.

He spent the 2023 offseason bulking up to play guard and won the starting right guard spot during training camp. Going into what could be Kelce’s final postseason run, Jurgens said he has adopted a broader focus this season.

“I’m here to play whatever position they want me to and learn everything I can,” Jurgens said. “My old coach used to call it ‘learning through osmosis.’ The more you hear things, the more you’re sitting in listening, trying to learn, you’re just going to pick things up, and you pick up a lot of stuff from him.”

Kelce added, “I hope that whoever that is, if that’s Cam Jurgens, that they feel zero pressure. Whoever is in at center is going to be living their own legacy that has nothing to do with me. Hopefully, I’ve imparted enough knowledge as I can with those guys so, when that time is done, they’re in a position to feel comfortable. Whoever is playing center in the future is going to be their own person.”

Jurgens’ osmosis has featured a heavy dose of Kelce, though.

He and fellow guard Landon Dickerson, who played center at Alabama before getting drafted by the Eagles in 2021, have spent their careers with Kelce as a mentor.

Jurgens said Kelce’s familiarity with the different defensive coaching trees across the NFL often leads to him knowing what the offensive line will see from an opponent on tape even before Stoutland turns on the film.

It also leads to the oldest player on the Eagles roster sometimes taking the blocking bag from younger reserves during individual drills to make sure his teammates are practicing against what they’ll see from defenders in a game.

“Seeing just how he practices and carries himself and does drills, it was super important for me,” Dickerson said. “To realize what’s expected and what I needed to do to be able to play at the level that he’s playing at. Even now, if he doesn’t think we’re getting a good look from somebody holding the bag, he’ll go and hold the bag. Usually we reserve that for younger guys — it can get rough holding the bag. But he wants to make sure that we’re getting the look that we need to.”

If this playoff run turns out to be his last, Kelce’s mentorship of the two young interior linemen he is flanked by will leave a trace. In exchange, Jurgens has given Kelce some advice for his potential pursuits in cattle farming, a topic they still dive into a good amount.

“We send a lot of videos back and forth,” Jurgens said. “Those conversations go wild.”

If Monday’s game is his last, can Kelce make it as a cattle rancher?

Jurgens thinks so.

“He’s very willing to learn,” Jurgens said. “It seems like he is in a lot of things. He’d never done a podcast until last year and they picked it up and they’re great at it. But they’re not great at it just because it comes natural, they’re great because they put time in, it becomes natural, and they’re willing to learn.”