After making an effort to stay involved, Cam Jurgens is ready to return in time for the Eagles’ Super Bowl rematch

Right guard Cam Jurgens has a favorite Jeff Stoutland-ism among the laundry list he’s heard throughout his two seasons with the Eagles.

“He always says, ‘Cam, you see that light at the end of the tunnel?’” Jurgens quoted his offensive line coach. “‘Things are gonna get better?’ He’s like, ‘You see that light at the end of the tunnel?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘It’s not a light. It’s a train. It’s coming right for you. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.’”

The message is clear — there’s always work to be done. One can never be too satisfied, too comfortable. The 24-year-old Jurgens has lived this lesson over the last month and a half. After earning the starting right guard role out of training camp and playing the first few games of the season, Jurgens suffered a foot injury in Week 4 against the Washington Commanders and was placed on injured reserve, sidelining him for the last five games.

Now, a glimmer of light is cutting through the darkness of that tunnel. The Eagles added Jurgens to the active roster on Saturday afternoon in advance of their Super Bowl LVII rematch against the Kansas City on Monday Night Football (8:15 p.m., 6abc, ESPN) after he took starting reps in practice throughout the week. But Jurgens has worked hard to prepare for his prospective return in an effort to ward off false hope.

“When you’re in rehab, it’s just kind of like a day-by-day process,” Jurgens said. “Some days are good, some days are bad. It’s like three steps forward, two steps back. So just worrying about every day and making sure I’m doing everything I can to get healthy and then make sure I’m not away from the team. So I’m going every meeting. So staying involved with the offense. Trying to get everything in that I can.”

» READ MORE: What the Chiefs are saying about the Eagles pre-Super Bowl LVII rematch

That concept of staying involved with the team is what Stoutland refers to as avoiding “sea barnacles” (another top-20 Stoutland-ism, Jurgens said). Ships that are docked too long at the port instead of sailing at sea accumulate barnacles. After sitting out for a month and a half, Jurgens is doing everything he can to not collect dust and making an effort to stay up to speed in the meeting room.

Jurgens stuck around the facility during the bye week to continue with his rehab, not wanting to disrupt the process of getting healthy. Now, he’s looking forward to making his return in front of a sea of friends and family at Arrowhead Stadium, which is about a three-hour drive from his hometown of Beatrice, Neb. Above all else, he’s just happy to be back on the field with his teammates, even just in practice over the last two weeks.

“I feel like I’ve been off so long,” Jurgens said. “I feel like I haven’t played this year. So it feels good to just be back out there practicing and being with the guys. It’s a lot more fun when you get to be out there practicing instead of just sitting in meetings and waiting.”

» READ MORE: The Eagles released Bernard Williams 29 years after his final game. He found peace after flushing ‘$100 million down the drain.’

During Friday’s practice, the Eagles returners practiced catching punts off the JUGS machine while wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead splashed them in the face using a bottle of water.

The drill was meant to simulate the rainy conditions in Monday’s forecast. according to the National Weather Service. The point of the drill isn’t necessarily to get the ball wet with the water bottle, but to splash water into the eyes of the returner, which Britain Covey said is the “hardest part” of dealing with rain.

Ultimately, Covey admitted that no drill can truly prepare a punt returner for the rain, other than actually catching punts in the rain. When it’s raining in the offseason where Covey lives in Utah, he goes through his Rolodex of punters in the area and offers them roughly $50 to punt, affording him the opportunity to practice in the elements. But when it’s always sunny in Philadelphia like it has been this week, water bottles will have to do.

“There’s a bunch of fun drills that you come up with as a punt returner to simulate [different scenarios],” Covey said. “I’ve had coaches throw big exercise balls at me. I’ve had coaches come and hit me with a big club or throw things in the air.”

Coach Nick Sirianni said that the drill, among others, is just part of the process of getting ready for the game. They have certain steps in their process, too, that account for the fact that they’re coming off the bye week and playing on a Monday night.

“You prepare for those things like you prepare for a defense or an offense or anything like that,” Sirianni said. “You’re just trying to put your guys in positions to help them prepare for what the game will be like. So with the weather and the predictions of weather, that’s a little different. It might happen, might not happen, so you don’t want to devote every period that you do toward it.”