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Looks like deer chomping to me. I have deer go right up to my front door for food. My deer would have no problem getting to it.
Squirrels ate a lot of my rose buds and blooms last year. That would be my first guess.
Since when do deer not do stairs? Mine certainly do! They've eaten Halloween pumpkins on the top of the front stoop,
During the jar test did you take pictures at 1 minute and 1 hour also? Those would have helped you determine whether you have a lot of silt or a lot of sand. In any case there's not much to do with that information. You're in the range of pretty good soil. If you still have the jar of soil you can shake it up again and take the 1-min and 1-hour pix.
Where do you live? It's important to know.
Are you going to grade the front before installing what appears to be a walkway from the driveway to the front door? You should or else the grading will break your new walk way even if it's concrete. Here is what grading looks like, by the way.
The guy on the blue Ford is grading with a box blade. The Skid Steer in back likely is collecting rocks. Skid Steers and Bobcats are horrible for leveling. With their short wheelbase and top heavy nature, they can take a week to do what a tractor and box blade can do in a few hours.
A lot (LOT) of people think they have clay soil when what they have is excess magnesium salts in the soil. Magnesium absorbs humidity from the air and can make even sandy soil into a gooey mess when it's wet. A good soil chemistry test will tell you about your soil salts (sodium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium).
What are the dead spots (2nd picture)?
What kind of grass do you have? What do you eventually want?
Looks like peanut butter.
I think you have a silty clay soil. It's a good soil to have. It holds moisture and nutrients well. But, it can compact fairly easily. I'm guessing you live in the southeast or mid-atlantic.
Charles if you do not find a way to get them out be prepared for a lot more. Perhaps try a long handled hoe, 3 pronged fork whatever works for you. The roots come out easily.
They're a tender annual. The only way to prevent a lot more is to get rid them before they seed or put down a pre-emergent early next spring. Whether they're mechanically removed or poisoned doesn't matter once they've seeded. I pull most of them, but some of them are impossible to pull.