With Andrew Wylie and Nick Gates signed to reinforce the offensive line, the Washington Commanders could opt against using their first-round pick on an offensive lineman and instead wait until the second or third-round to add some more options up front. It’s entirely plausible that the team could still spend two high picks on offensive lineman at the end of the month.
In those scenarios, one offensive lineman that I think would likely interest the Commanders is TCU’s Steve Avila. Avila played mostly on the inside at either left guard or center, but also played some right tackle at times too. That position flexibility will obviously appeal to Ron Rivera, who has emphasized position flexibility throughout his time in Washington. Avila played his final season at LG but I think in the NFL he ultimately should end up as a center.
Avila measures in at 6-foot-3, 332 pounds and is a good athlete especially at that weight. He’s got quick feet and is agile, which enables him to move far better than most men his size.
Take this screen against Baylor as an example. Avila starts from the left guard position but looks to get out in front of a tunnel screen to the slot receiver to the left of the formation. Avila moves smoothly up to the second level, ready to block the back side safety. However, the center also gets there, so Avila lets the center handle the back side safety while he works up to the front side safety. He covers the ground easily and efficiently as he gets to the safety. Now, once he gets to the safety, he lunges a bit and misses the block, but by that point the receiver had already been tackled behind him and the point here is to show the ease with which he can move and work in space.
Being that big and being that mobile is a big plus for Avila. It allows the offensive coordinator to open up the playbook and design different types of run schemes and screens that can make use of that mobility that other offensive lineman couldn’t handle.
This is just a basic counter scheme that you’ll see in just about every game of football at all levels. Avila pulls from his left guard spot and works across to the right side of the line to kick out the edge defender and create a lane for the running back to work inside. The movement is smooth and fast, allowing him to get to the edge defender before he can crash down the line. He then uses his frame to kick the defender out and create that lane inside for the back to run into.
While that play on it’s own isn’t necessarily amazing, though it is another good example of Avila’s athleticism, it does lead to some strong play-action fakes.
On this play, TCU fake a similar run to the play we just saw, with Avila pulling from his left guard spot and working to the right side of the line. However, the ball isn’t given to the running back and instead kept by the quarterback looking to throw down the field. The saying in the NFL goes “if you want to sell play-action, pull a guard”, meaning that a pulling guard is such a strong run key for the defense that they’ll typically bite on it the majority of the time. That’s what happens here as Avila pulls and gets the linebackers to bite up on the fake.
However, in order to execute this type of play-action fake, you need an athletic lineman that is capable of making up the ground quickly and picking up an edge rusher if they read the play and get up the field. Fortunately for TCU here, the edge rusher drops back into coverage, but Avila does a nice job sliding across anyway and picks up the widening defensive tackle to secure the edge and allow the quarterback time to throw down the field.
Avila’s size and athleticism makes him quite scheme diverse. At TCU, they used him as a puller in gap scheme runs and as a combination blocker on inside runs like tight zone and duo, which he was effective with. In the games I watched, they didn’t run many wide zone plays, but I think his athleticism should make him a strong option there too. On one of the few wide zone plays I did see, he flashed his potential there too.
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