Hey thank you for the replies. I will try to get in there with an exacto and "trumpet" the base of the tube, that makes sense. I've been under the extruder with a flash light and basically lockpicking tools trying to guide the filament through the two gears to get into the tube. I think I've sheared off half of this PLA tubing the printer came with at this point.

I'm a pretty simple fellow, so replacing all these parts seems daunting, but from all yalls information I think I've been able to find a few youtube videos on how to take this extruder apart / replace it.