“He did a great job…”

JACKSONVILLE – Travis Etienne Jr. smiled Friday evening, which isn’t news.

Etienne, the former first-round pick who missed his entire 2021 rookie season with a broken foot, almost always smiles. But after Etienne returned to football in the Jaguars’ 2022 preseason home opener Friday, a lot of people were smiling when discussing Etienne. Among them:

His collegiate teammate at Clemson, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

“It felt great to be out there with him,” Lawrence said after the Jaguars’ 24-13 loss to the Cleveland Browns in a 2022 Preseason Week 1 game at TIAA Bank Field Friday. “It’s obviously the first time since that New Orleans game last year. To be back with him and to work the whole off-season, OTAs, camp all that and to finally get to play together tonight was great.

“I thought he did a great job, it was a good night.”

Numbers don’t tell the story of Etienne’s story from Friday. He finished with a pedestrian 2.6 yards per carry average against the Browns. But on his first carry, he exploded through the offensive line for a 12-yard gain and showed everyone – including Etienne – that the foot is just fine.

“I’ve reached the point where I don’t panic about it,” he said with his trademark smile. “That’s just my nature. I’m all go whatever I do, so when I’m out there playing football I can’t be worrying about my foot.

“I have other things to worry about. I was just trying to be the hammer and not the nail. There’s lots I have to work on, but it felt great to be out there.”

Jaguars Head Coach Pederson challenged his team with a live practice session on the Sunday before the Browns game. He wasn’t happy with the way the defense in particular failed to control the line of scrimmage in the run game against the Las Vegas Raiders at the Hall of Fame game the previous week.

Friday night was a different story. The Browns’ first-team offense produced just seven rushing and the Jaguars’ pass rush forced Cleveland quarterback Deshaun Watson to make decisions quicker…