Although the Las Vegas Raiders suffered a 15-20 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams in Week 7, there were plenty of positive takeaways for Sin City during the contest. One such positive was the season-high 92 rushing yards from Alexander Mattison on 23 carries. Another was the career-high 10 catches rookie Brock Bowers hauled in for 93 yards receiving. Rookie tackle DJ Glaze was right at the top of positives for the Raiders in Week 7 as well.
Glaze came into the week allowing a pair of sacks on the season while posting a run-block grade of 52.0 via Pro Football Focus. His 11 pressures surrendered were the second-highest on the team behind Kolton Miller.
Week 7 presented a much different story for the first-year right tackle, however.
On 48 pass-blocking opportunities, Glaze surrendered a total of zero sacks against the Rams. His two pressures were the second-least among the Raiders’ five offensive linemen in addition.
As good as he was on passing downs, Glaze was even better when the Raiders elected to run the football. With a 90.1 run-blocking grade, no offensive lineman at any position earned a higher grade on running plays than Las Vegas’ third-round selection this summer.
This performance comes directly after holding All-Pro edge rusher T.J. Watt to zero pressures during Week 6’s contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers. For Watt, it was the first time since 2018 where he didn’t record any number of pressures in a ballgame.
The differences between Las Vegas Raiders right tackles DJ Glaze and Thayer Munford
Taken in round three of the 2024 NFL Draft, DJ Glaze was who the Raiders hoped would be their future right tackle. At this point in his young career, all signs point to the Maryland alum being just that.
Glaze took over for Thayer Munford Jr. in Week 3 and never looked back.
The change at right tackle was largely due to Munford’s early-season struggles. Among all offensive linemen to play any amount of snaps against the run through seven weeks, only one player has a lower run-blocking grade than Munford’s mark of 35.1; and, as it just so happens, that one player across the entirety of the NFL with a lower run-block grade than Munford is his teammate Andrus Peat (31.6).
Compare that to Glaze’s league-leading 90.1 run-block grade this past week.
In pass-protection, there’s no difference in sacks allowed between Glaze and Munford with two each. There is a difference, however, in the amount of pass-blocking snaps both players have totaled while allowing those two sacks.
For Glaze, he’s given up a pair of sacks on 216 pass-block snaps; the second-most among all Raiders offensive linemen. Munford, on the other hand, has taken the field on only 87 passing downs.
At his current pace, Munford would have given up five sacks by the time he reaches the amount of pass-blocking snaps accumulated by Glaze this season.
There’s a new starting right tackle in Sin City, and his job doesn’t appear to be up for grabs anytime soon.
*Top Photo: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images
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