Steve Avila plays with an edge on the interior of the offensive line. As a guard, you have to.
That’s not just in the running game, but also in pass protection. He showed off his physicality on one play during the Rams’ preseason loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night, which Brandon Thorn spotted and shared on social media.
Thorn highlighted Avila peeling off his block in the middle, passing it off to Mike McAllister before shifting to his left to help Alaric Jackson with the defensive end, Jordan Willis. As Thorn notes, Avila uncorked a huge block on Willis, knocking him on his back and out of the play.
Avila uncorking on the DE for a full slab #backflip pic.twitter.com/5cexMzkFKr
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) August 21, 2023
Sean McVay has mentioned he wants to be physical on both lines so he probably loved this play when watching the film from Saturday’s game.
It sounds like Mike LaFleur did, mentioning it during his press conference with Rams reporters on Monday.
If I just understood Rams OC Mike LaFleur correctly, he just highlighted this play specifically when talking about Alaric Jackson and Steve Avila’s performance vs. Raiders as game went on https://t.co/LyYssTwSdp
— Stu Jackson (@StuJRams) August 21, 2023
Avila is going to be the Rams’ starting left guard and it’s not hard to understand how he earned that job as a rookie. He’s always looking for work as a blocker, never getting caught standing around during a play.
