Silver And Black Pride
When Klint Kubiak name dropped DJ Glaze when the Las Vegas Raiders head coach was asked about the offensive line he inherited at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine back in late February, it piqued my interest.
After all, that comment by the Silver & Black’s new lead man arrived after Glaze — Las Vegas’ third-round pick (77th overall) in the 2024 NFL Draft — struggled mightily in Year 2. From both a visual and metrics standpoint, it was a sophomore slump for Maryland product as Pro Football Focus (PFF) charted Glaze with 48 pressures allowed including 10 sacks and six quarterback hits given up. The group also earmarked the Raiders right tackle as the worst offender in blown blocks last season.
With all that in mind, you’d be forgiven to label Kubiak’s words — “You have some stability at both tackle spots (Kolton Miller, DJ Glaze)” — as merely coach speak.
A month later, at the league meetings, Kubiak once again held Glaze in high regard.
“Well, probably like everybody, especially on the offense, is just buy into this new system and just get familiar with it so that they can go play fast on Sunday,” Kubiak said in Arizona. “And that’s our job as coaches. I think DJ is a really good young player.”
Nary another Raider has displaced Glaze from the starting right tackle gig. The soon-to-be 24-year-old (on August 4) offensive lineman has remained unchallenged for duties on an island on the right side throughout the offseason sessions so far and training camp around the corner (rookies report July 23 with veterans arriving on July 28).
Beat reporters from various outlets have all noted Glaze is entrenched as the starting right tackle, as is Miller on the blindside. The incumbent is holding strong and thwarting other challengers and when all-important training camp arrives, it’ll be interesting to see if Glaze can maintain his vice grip on the spot.
While taking every first-team rep at right tackle through offseason team activities (OTAs) and mandatory minicamp sessions is impressive, couple that with the coaching staff growing impression Glaze is the man for the job and Year 3 appears as a get-right season for the young tackle.
To be up front: Glaze’s fit in the blocking scheme veteran offensive line boss Rick Dennison and Kubiak are installing in Las Vegas appeared questionable from the jump. This is largely due to the 6-foot-4 and 331-pound linemen being more power-based than zone athletic-based. Let’s cut right to it: Glaze is more plodder than mover. The wide/outside zone system puts an emphasis on athletic linemen who have the footwork and high football IQ to move laterally and running out into space.
Glaze is mobility limited and doesn’t appear to be a fit for the horizontal movement required to get out in space, stretch, latch on to and seal athletic edge defenders to open up the offense for both running backs and quarterbacks. Twitchy athlete Glaze is not. As evidenced by Glaze’s struggles in...
