After one preseason game, Jaguars rookie Leonard Fournette thinks NFL is ‘easy’

Leonard Fournette has one NFL preseason game under his belt, and already the Jacksonville Jaguars rookie running back thinks he has the league figured out.

In a word, it’s “easy.”

“It’s a lot slower than I really thought,” Fournette said after the Jaguars’ 31-24 victory over the New England Patriots on Thursday. “That’s how I’ve been since I first got into the NFL. A lot of people were like, ‘It’s going to be fast.’ But by me playing in the SEC, that kind of helped me a lot. I think to me it was really easy.”

The former LSU standout who was drafted No. 4 overall by Jacksonville rushed for 31 yards on nine carries with a 1-yard touchdown run in the preseason opener for both teams. That’s an average of 3.44 yards per carry.

Breaking down each time Fournette carried the ball, he rushed for four yards, then five, no gain, followed by eight, four, two, four, three and one.

Might as well start sizing him up for a gold jacket and getting his bust ready for the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio.

Or at least expect another rookie season like the one we saw a year ago from the Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott, who led the league in rushing with 1,631 yards. Asked by NFL.com after Thursday’s game whether he thought he could have a similar rookie year, Fournette said matter-of-factly, “Yeah, I think so.”

Is there a Hall of Fame for confidence?

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii