Steve
Avila.
Steve
Avila.
TCU
"The rare interior prospect whose versatility was documented rather than projected: he started at center, both guards and right tackle, and the tape barely changed from one spot to the next."Pre-draft read
Avila is a five-position lineman who found his home at left guard, a 330-pound anchor whose game is built on grip strength and a wide, settled base. He plays with his weight distributed and his hands inside, and once he latches he finishes; defenders who try to two-hand swipe him rarely get clean because the punch lands first and the feet keep churning.
The second trait is short-area balance. He is not a puller who wins the perimeter, but on down blocks and interior double teams he displaces bodies and gets vertical push. In pass protection the anchor is the separator: he sits, absorbs bull rushes and does not concede depth. The athletic ceiling is average; the signature is that he did all of it at center, both guards and right tackle.
Gap and duo-heavy run scheme that asks its guards to displace bodies straight ahead and protect the pocket's interior without help.
Year 1: immediate three-position insurance who starts at left guard from Week 1. Ceiling: decade-long interior anchor and offensive-line communicator.
Wide-zone offense that lives on backside cutoffs and asks guards to pull to the perimeter and hit moving targets in open grass.
His value rises in any building that wants one lineman capable of covering center and both guards on gameday.
TCU G Steve Avila in 10 plays
Offensive-line specialist cutup showing the anchor, the hand placement and the finish on down blocks.
TCU OL Steve Avila Film Breakdown
Full pre-draft breakdown of the 2022 left guard tape, including the pass-protection base against interior power.
TCU Steve Avila C/G 2023 Film Breakdown
Center-and-guard study that isolates the positional versatility and the limitations climbing to the second level.
A four-year contributor at TCU who redshirted in 2018 and then played every interior job the staff needed filled, Avila is the rare prospect whose versatility is documented rather than projected. He started at center, at both guards and at right tackle, and the tape does not change much from spot to spot: heavy hands, a low center of gravity, and a mean streak in the run game.
The 2020 season is the proof of concept — nine starts across three different positions, the only Horned Frog to do that. He settled at center for 11 starts in 2021, then moved to left guard for all 15 games of the 2022 national-championship run and never looked overmatched, earning consensus All-America honors and a team captaincy on a line that protected Max Duggan through a Big 12 title and a Fiesta Bowl classic. The flags were athletic: a 5.21 forty, limited range in space, and a body type that demanded conditioning discipline.
The board consensus was clean. Nobody argued about the floor; the argument was whether a guard without special movement skills belonged in the top 40. Los Angeles took him at 36 to fix a run game that had collapsed, and the call read as a team buying a plug-and-play starter rather than an upside swing.
- 01
Anchor strength
Sits down against bull rushers with weight back and knees bent, and interior power rushers simply stop moving once he sets his base against them.
- 02
Grip and finish
Heavy, accurate hands that latch inside the frame; once he attaches to a defender the rep is functionally over and he plays through the whistle.
- 03
Documented versatility
Started at center, left guard, right guard and right tackle in college, the only TCU lineman in 2020 to start at three different spots.
- 04
Drive blocking
Generates real vertical displacement on down blocks and interior double teams, which is where the run game creases show up on his tape.
- 05
Football character
Voted team captain on a national-championship line and carried the pre-snap communication load at center for a full season.
- 01
Range in space
A 5.21 forty shows up when he pulls or climbs to the second level; linebackers who keep moving can run past his angle.
- 02
Recovery quickness
When his hands miss on the first strike he cannot always reset, and quick interior counters can work back across his face.
- 03
Body maintenance
Carries 332 pounds on a thick frame, and the conditioning line between powerful and heavy is one he has to police every offseason.
- 04
Ceiling limits
The floor is high and the projection modest; he profiles as a very good starter rather than a line-defining All-Pro talent.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | TCU | 11 |
| 2020 | TCU | 9 |
| 2021 | TCU | — |
| 2022 | TCU | 15 |
| Career | — | 35 |
Verified against TCU's official athletics bio and the Rams' team career page. No fabricated or zero-filled values.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A high-floor left guard who makes the run game work and never has to come off the field for protection reasons.
The realistic ceiling: a decade of durable, physical starts at guard with Pro Bowl-level anchor and almost no bad tape.
If the range limitations and injuries compound, a solid interior starter who is replaceable rather than a building block.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Avila started all 17 games at left guard for the Los Angeles Rams in his rookie season. He was a consistent presence on the offensive line, helping to protect Matthew Stafford.
The Rams got exactly what they drafted. Avila started all 17 games at left guard as a rookie and was the only Los Angeles player to take every offensive snap, landing on the PFWA All-Rookie Team on a line that turned a broken run game into a functional one. In 2024 Sean McVay moved him to center after the Jonah Jackson and Kevin Dotson signings, but a knee injury requiring surgery put him on injured reserve; he was activated in November, went back to left guard, and started the final nine regular-season games plus two playoff games. In 2025 an ankle sprain in the opener cost him two games and limited two others before he reclaimed the job in Week 6 and finished with 13 starts.
The honest read is that the evaluation was right and the durability was the surprise. He is what the tape said — a legitimate, physical starting guard who does not lose reps to power and does not need to be schemed around — and his pairing with Dotson has been one of the better guard tandems in the league. What has kept him from the tier above is availability: two straight seasons interrupted, and a 2026 walk year in which the extension conversation hinges less on whether he can play and more on whether he can stay on the field.
Data note: Verified against TCU's official athletics bio and the Rams' team career page. No fabricated or zero-filled values.