OL Steve Avila see things differently now

Los Angeles, CA (News4usOnline) – During his rookie season, offensive lineman Steve Avila didn’t miss a beat. And not much else. After a successful run at TCU, Avila immediately announced his presence as a starter on the offensive line for the Los Angeles Rams. 

Avila thrived. Looking like a longtime fixture on the offensive line, Avila played in all 17 games of the regular season.  Those 1,094 snaps he took during his freshman year in the NFL were the most by a Rams rookie since 2017. 

He would go on to earn All-Rookie accolades. However, the reality checklist for Avila came at the beginning of the 2024 season when he suffered an unfortunate MCL injury in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions.  

He wound up missing a little more than a quarter of the season. Avila said he learned a great deal about himself during the time he was out. His approach to the game of football and life changed, he said.   

“Man, football is a game of ups and downs,” Avila said during an interview he gave in training camp. “I feel like it’s the best sport to learn more about yourself. There’s a lot of adversity that every player has had to go through, and I feel like for me, that was probably my peak. 

“I know there’s more to come. I’m constantly growing. I can confidently say I’ve learned so much from everything that happened last year. I’m blessed that I got the opportunity to go through stuff like that, good and bad. It’s given me a clear state of mind of how to carry myself through tough situations.” 

The time off was a mental adjustment period for Avila. The MCL sprain he came down with was the first injury he had suffered that kept him away from the game of football.  

“It was tough for me coming back and understanding that it’s going to take time to come back, because in my head, I’m always like go,” Avila admitted. “If I’m on the field, I should be ready to go, but in reality, I didn’t play football for almost three months.”

While navigating through this process, Avila said he also discovered something else about himself.

“I found out what type of old person I’m going to be, too,” Avila remarked. “I was in my bed, and my mom was there trying to help me, and I told her, ‘I got it. Like, don’t help me.’ That’s definitely something that I learned, too. You’ve got to take days one step at a time.”   

Keeping quarterback Matthew Stafford upright is the primary job for those individuals occupying a spot on the offensive line for the Los Angeles Rams. 

Next on the job description list is to give Kyren Williams and the other running backs on the team enough of a crease to slide in between the wall of bodies that often turns into a collision course of mass and willpower. Avila knows about this. He should. 

Avila is one of the mainstays on the offensive line for the Rams. Yet the 2025 NFL season will just be his third in the league. It is a subtle reminder of how good an offensive lineman Avila is and has become since he was drafted in the second round by the Rams in 2023.

Avila can play any spot on the offensive line and dominate his opponent with the ease of shuffling a deck of cards. Avila is so good that you forget or tend to forget how young he is. 

At 6-foot-3 and tipping the scales at 338 pounds, this mountain of a man is just 25 years old. Avila can best be described as a gentle giant. He has a personality that charms irresistibly. 

He is both gracious and warm. But don’t let the goodness of Avila and his wonderful smile fool you. There is a reason why Avila starts on the offensive line. Playing in the trenches as Avila does means getting down and dirty and being unafraid to mix things up. 

After putting in the work during the offseason to improve his game, Avila says he’s ready to get this year’s regular season party started. 

“I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life,” Avila said. “I know that there’s a lot expected of me when it comes to that. I know coach [Sean McVay] expects a lot out of me when it comes to that stuff. I try to hone in on that.”