Rams LG Steve Avila is already the best rookie OL of 2023: Film Breakdown

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Steve Avila has been the best rookie offensive lineman in my opinion. I think Darnell Wright for the Chicago Bears has had a really good season, but when you consider difficulty of assignment and how many true one on one pass sets they're taking, I'd probably give the nod to Avila at this point. And there are definitely still some weak spots on the Rams O line, but Avila's been a steady presence, giving Matthew Stafford time to throw and opening up gaps in the run game.

The first thing you've got to talk about with Steve Avila is his anchor. He's 6'3 1 2 332 pounds, 33 inch arms. He has such a big frame with so much mass to anchor against power and absorb contact. he does a good job getting his hands inside. He has the grip strength where once he lands his punch he stays attached, doesn't let the pass rusher turn the corner on him. You can see right here he gets his hands inside on this 3 tech, maintains contact. 

At the start of the rep, his pads are really close up to the defender. But then he locks his elbows, separates himself from the block, tosses him aside. He also does a great job of moving his feet and adjusting his strategy throughout the rep. Unless you have some insane mismatch, it's pretty rare in the NFL for a three tech to be able to just bull rush straight through a guard. Usually at some point in the rep, they're going to pick a side and try to work around that corner. 

But Avila does a great job moving his feet, letting the pass rusher declare which side he wants to attack, and then flushing him upfield, and giving Stafford a clean pocket to step up into. There have been a couple times that he's lost to power, but they haven't been quick losses. He's getting pushed back in the pocket four to five seconds after the snap, which is great for a rookie. That's usually one of the main areas that young offensive linemen struggle. He's also shown really good hand usage and has an answer for pretty much every move a pass rusher throws at him. 

And he has the ability to play with heavy hands and light hands simultaneously. What I mean by that is that he can play with heavy hands where he creates that initial knockback at the point of contact, and when he latches on, he doesn't let go, his grip strength is too much for most pass rushers to disengage. But there's also a lot of finesse to his game. He can punch and then pull back and replace his punch, either as a reaction to the Pass Rusher, or as a way of him baiting him early in the rep. 

So that's what I mean by light hands. He has the patience and timing to feel out the Pass Rusher, maybe land a softer initial strike, and then pull back and reposition his hands once he gets into a move. When he's blocking a three technique with no immediate threat to the inside, he usually sets outside and leads with an inside hand punch. That way he can widen out with his feet to protect the b gap, but stay attached with the inside hand so if the pass rusher crosses over, he can slide his feet and wash them away from the quarterback. 

This has probably been the most impressive aspect of Steve Avila's tape, is his ability to slide with inside movement. Especially for a player of his size, having the foot quickness to set in one direction and then shuffle back and seal off two gaps. You don't see that very often. And there were times on his college tape. I thought his feet were kind of stuck in quicksand a little bit, but that's hardly ever been an issue in the NFL. So right here his set's gonna be at a 45 degree angle outside, that way he's protecting the B gap if the 3 tech decided to just rush straight through it. 

But by widening out he's creating that space in the A gap, so his first punch is gonna be with the inside hand. And you can see the pass rusher tries to swipe inside and rip through, but Avila keeps his hand attached, slides his feet to the inside, cuts off that A gap, and then he gets some help from the center, turns him over on his back. Here's another one. He's matched up with Milton Williams and a three tech alignment. So he's lined up right over the B gap. And his first steps going to be 45 degrees outside to protect that B gap. 

Milton Williams responds by trying to swim inside, but Avila's landed that inside hand punch. Williams is one of the most explosive defensive linemen in the NFL, so he's able to get a step inside. But Avila gives him a shove at the last second to clear him out of the way. Here's another one against the Colts. This time Tyquan Lewis is going to go straight to power, slanting to the inside. Avila still takes out initial set outside in his pass set, but he's quick to react to the inside movement. Redirects his set back inside, lands the inside hand punch, anchors against the bull rush. 

Then once Lewis starts to disengage and gets inside leverage and tries to finish to the quarterback, Avila takes advantage of him not being as firm on his feet And just pushes him out of the way. There's so many examples through these first six weeks of Avila doing the exact same movement, I'm not going to break down every single one, Milton Williams was able to beat him one time in this situation. You can see Avila really overextends with this inside hand punch. He takes a little bit too wide of a set. The actual problem isn't really how much width he gets. It's more that he's leaning his weight displacement outside. 

If you're going to widen out like this and leave an open A gap, you want your weight more back on your heels. so that way when they cross over back inside, you're in a good position to recover. But yeah, he misses with this inside hand. Milton Williams is able to swipe inside and get a pressure on Matt Stafford. He's also been really good about always looking for work, providing a lot of help to his center and left tackle. You can see right here, Nick Bosa is able to forklift to Alaric Jackson. But Avila has his eyes up, he sees Bosa win inside, and he slides over, slows him down enough that Stafford can still get rid of the ball.

So there's a lot of examples on tape of Avila having good awareness and basically saving the play by sliding over and blocking someone that got through. But you can also tell he just has that aggressive physical mentality. A lot of just finished blocks where the tackle was probably gonna win, but he just slides over and knocks him on the ground. So I think Avila has been great in pass protection. If you care about this sort of thing, I think he's probably the most under-graded player on PFF. There's a lot of times where the entire left side of the line is collapsing just because they were really weak at left tackle, especially in like the Bengals game. 

And I think Avila has gotten tagged for some stuff that wasn't necessarily his fault. But yeah, if you watch the tape, he's been a rock in past protection outside of probably five snaps.and then as a run blocker, his size, play strength and hand usage allows him to create a lot of displacement on down blocks and double teams. Right here he's matched up with Jalen Carter. He gets this outside hand underneath the armpit and just drives him out of his gap. So I didn't have any doubts about his ability to create movement off the line of scrimmage; but I have been surprised by his zone blocking ability he has good movement skills to get to his aiming point whether it's a difficult reach block or a second level block on a linebacker.

 He had a couple really nice blocks on Fred Warner in Week 2. Right here against the Bengals, they're running a play action throwback screen to the left. Mike Hilton reads this play pretty quickly and he's on track to get a big tackle for loss, but Avila's able to track him down, land his punch, clear him out of the way for Kyren Williams to get a big gain. Good example of his raw play strength right here. He gets his hands on the linebacker. Hip tosses him into the ground.running a screen to Kyren Williams in the red zone. 

They've got the sinner climbing downfield to block Dre Greenlaw, and then Avila's gonna pass set, and then disengage and get downfield. And you can see as Kyren Williams is heading into the endzone, Greenlaw's able to undercut this block from Coleman Shelton. But Avila's coming full speed downhill, lands the finishing block, Williams is able to get the touchdown. There are a few plays some people might look at and say he's holding, but the reason it doesn't get called is because he does a great job getting his hands inside and then he keeps his feet moving throughout the rep. 

So even if he is technically holding onto the jersey, because he's moving his feet and you don't actually see that jersey grab and stretch out, it's not going to get called. And that's a major element of being able to sustain blocks and finish reach blocks at difficult angles. So Steve Avila is playing like a five year veteran already. 

It's important to keep in mind when a rookie offensive lineman struggles that the learning curve is pretty steep. And so it is fair to expect some growing pains early on and then the development picks up. But Steve Avila has kind of skipped over that rookie learning curve. He still has some rough plays here and there, but I don't think he's had a single bad game, and I expect his level of play to just continue to rise.