JACKSONVILLE — Jaguars offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen is approaching full health and expected to start at right tackle for Jacksonville’s Week 1 game against the Cleveland Browns at EverBank Stadium on Sept. 13, capping a months-long recovery from a knee injury sustained in the final week of last season.
“It just feels really good to put myself in a spot to be back, be with the guys again, feel the game again, be in the huddle again,” Van Lanen said. He missed the Jaguars’ AFC Wild Card Playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 11 with the knee injury and began training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list before being activated on Aug. 20.
Head Coach Liam Coen said he has been encouraged by what he has seen in recent practices. “I know Cole’s looked good — I know he has looked really good,” Coen said, adding that Van Lanen showed confidence during one-on-one drills against defensive players in the preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Van Lanen finished last season as the starting left tackle after starting at five different offensive line positions. He spent 2022-2024 largely as a reserve after the Jaguars acquired him in an August 2022 trade with the Green Bay Packers. The shift to right tackle marks another positional adjustment for a lineman whose versatility has defined his Jacksonville tenure.
“I’ve missed a lot of football the past year, this 2026, and just taking all these reps extremely seriously,” Van Lanen said. “I really have to work on my craft, and there is only going to be so many reps before we’re back in the games.”
Van Lanen credited the Jaguars’ training staff with guiding his recovery, calling the support system “amazing.” He described the rehabilitation as a process built on incremental progress. “You can’t attain your large goals without hitting the small ones,” he said. “I feel like hitting all these minor goals throughout my process has really helped me elevate myself and kind of got me to a point where I feel almost better than I did before throughout my body, all the deficiencies I had, stuff like that.”
The solitary nature of rehab made the return to team activities meaningful. “A lot of this stuff, you’re on your own,” Van Lanen said. “You have your own schedule. You have your own process. It’s been great [to be back with teammates]. When you’re away from it for so long, you’re just so excited to be back and it has been really, really fun.” The Jaguars open the regular season against Cleveland at EverBank Stadium on Sept. 13.