Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › Rams OL developments this off-season
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March 26, 2024 at 6:05 pm #150107
znModeratorIdentifying Jonah Jackson and sliding Steve Avila to center
McVay on Monday confirmed Steve Avila will move from left guard to center after the team signed Jonah Jackson.
According to McVay, each of those moving pieces were late developments in the team’s approach to free agency.
Moving Avila to center “was never really part of the plan, until you realize, ‘wow, Coleman Shelton voided his contract,'” McVay said, referring to Shelton voiding the final year of his deal and becoming a free agent. They wanted to bring Shelton back, but by nature of evaluating the guard market, getting Kevin Dotson‘s deal done ahead of the negotiating period, and realizing there was a possibility they could get Jackson, those plans began to fall into place.
“Hey, Kevin’s at right guard, Jonah played left guard, and oh by the way, this stud rookie left guard that you had, he was an excellent center at TCU,” McVay said. “And when you want to try to be able to improve and push the envelope with the interior parts of the offensive line, it really wasn’t part of the plan until you realize, wow, we might be able to get Jonah Jackson, and if we did that, even went back and started watching – and this all came together last minute – TCU, and you say, you know what, he did a great job at center, there’s a lot of work.”
April 2, 2024 at 6:30 pm #150181znModeratorKevin Dotson: 90.4 gap run-blocking grade in 2023
1st among all Guards 🚧 pic.twitter.com/dGNQqBuDlM
— PFF LA Rams (@PFF_Rams) April 2, 2024
April 15, 2024 at 5:51 pm #150254znModeratorJourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Rob Havenstein on second-year OL Steve Avila switching to center. Huge extra effort behind the scenes. This is a long quote but worth a read and great insight (good advice in here even for general public who wants to know where to start when getting into film study too)April 23, 2024 at 10:13 pm #150304znModeratorRams’ Steve Avila makes a move: Shifting to center, film with Rob Havenstein and more
Jourdan Rodrigue
Second-year Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman Steve Avila found out he was moving to center at about the same time reporters did.
“I found out through Instagram,” he said, laughing. “When y’all saw it is when I saw it. (But) I knew it was a possibility, that it might happen. It’s funny, I remember Les (Snead) asked me if I could snap midseason. I was like, ‘Whoa, what are we doing?’ … It was really depending on how things were going to go in the draft and free agency.”
Avila started and played every snap for the Rams at left guard as a rookie in 2023, but did play center while at TCU. Ahead of free agency this spring, as the Rams negotiated an extension with right guard Kevin Dotson they also evaluated the broader guard market in case they couldn’t ultimately re-sign him. Left guard Jonah Jackson was at the top of their “just in case” list. When the Detroit Lions didn’t extend Jackson ahead of the legal tampering period and the Rams got Dotson’s three-year extension done early, they saw they could also make a push for Jackson, who ultimately signed a similar three-year deal.
“If we were to lose Kevin Dotson, who could we replace Kevin with?” Snead said last month, “Then that’s where — wait a minute, there could be an opportunity to get two guards, especially with Steve’s (Avila) versatility.”
Getting the two guards done quickly was possible because the Rams believed Avila could move to center, which in turn meant not re-signing former starter Coleman Shelton. Shelton, who has since signed with the Chicago Bears, opted to void the final year on his contract and test his market. And the Rams didn’t need a surplus at guard and could not wait on Shelton.
Now, Avila enters OTAs with the new role. The practices are limited in football activity until later in the spring, and won’t be padded until training camp. Avila, a left-handed snapper like Shelton before him, will lose about five pounds but much of his work will be mental.
“I sat down with Les and (Sean) McVay and everybody, and they told me they have a bunch of trust in what I can do,” Avila said.
The center is responsible for a huge amount of pre-snap diagnosis, setting protections and overall communication in the Rams’ offense. Avila began his rookie season with an idea to absorb both the offense and the defense in the same way he would as if he were the center at that time, using skills he learned at TCU. But for a rookie expected to plug and play immediately at guard, it was too much to learn two positions at once.
“I tried to learn everything as a center, because then you know who does what,” he said, “and it got to a point where I had to not do that, because I really had to focus on my technique and what I was supposed to do and understanding the playbook. Now that I know more things, I’m now approaching more things from a center mindset. … It’s refreshing, because I (now) know a lot of the things. I played every snap. It’s good to see things from a different perspective and I learned a lot from Coleman Shelton and Brian Allen last year.”
Allen was the backup center after starting for the Rams during their Super Bowl-winning season. He didn’t play any snaps in 2023, but he always wore a headset on the sideline. That was just one clue about how significant a mental load playing the position can be: Every snap is a group effort, including position coach Ryan Wendell (a former longtime center) and of course veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford.
“Sean mentioned this in our offensive line meeting today, it doesn’t just fall on Steve to make sure every call is right (and to) get every look correct,” right tackle and captain Rob Havenstein said last week. “We are all working as a unit, quarterback included. Obviously Matthew has been around the game long enough, he’s seen everything (and) knows everything. Super smart guy, wouldn’t want anyone else back there. But it’s not just Steve, it’s not just on him. Everyone else is learning and growing together. … We just need Steve to be Steve.”
The quarterback/center partnership especially is about supplementing each others’ pre-snap responsibilities. Receiver Cooper Kupp believes that Stafford’s experience will help Avila in his transition, and has seen the reverse in effect during his tenure, too.
“It’s interesting, I go way back to 2017 (when) John Sullivan was here,” Kupp said, “you had Jared (Goff), who was a younger quarterback, you had John Sullivan who had been in the offense, been in the league for a long time, been in Sean’s offense for a long time. When I got in, the center did everything. Jared was learning a lot from John, how John saw the game (and) how he wanted the protections.
“That was a collaboration between those two to figure out (what) that was gonna be. As Jared played longer, Jared took more ownership of that. Now, we’re in this place where we’re seeing the opposite of that. You’ve got Matthew, who can do all the stuff. He’s obviously going to be able to help with the run game, can help in the protections and do all of that. He’s going to run the show. It’s going to be on Steve now to step in and be like, ‘How can I learn what Matthew is seeing, how he wants to do things?’”
Havenstein set up meetings with Avila this spring to study defensive structures, and has helped him with new techniques for quickly breaking down a big picture in the seconds before a snap.
“If you look and see the whole picture just right away, you see everything, it kind of blinds you a little bit,” Havenstein said. “Start looking at little details that help you out, figure out what is going on. All of that is just a learning process.”
Avila said the Rams’ guards generally relied “heavily” on previous centers, because of their knowledge. He used to go into the huddle and listen, and absorb all of the information. Now, the charismatic young lineman will be the one speaking (along with Stafford).
“He seems so excited to take over that role,” Kupp said, “(to) be a part and being at the center of that offense. I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be a really good fit.”
McVay and Havenstein made sure Avila knew he didn’t have to be perfect right away.
“We don’t expect it today, I don’t expect it tomorrow, I don’t expect it by the end of OTAs,” Havenstein said. “It’ll be the same thing in training camp, just keep building and building and building — and I think Steve is going to do a great job.”
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