In the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Las Vegas Raiders addressed their offensive line by selecting Delmar ‘DJ’ Glaze out of Maryland. Glaze is an interesting prospect because while he has a strong track record in pass protection at offensive tackle, his traits suggest he’d be better suited as a guard at the next level.
For example, the former Terripan earned pass-blocking grades from Pro Football Focus in the mid-80s and only gave up 32 pressures on over 1,000 opportunities over the last two seasons. However, he lacks some foot speed/quickness which can lead to short corners around the edge.
Also, Glaze shows some promise on double teams, down blocks and as a puller in the running game, as the clips below highlight.
Maryland runs counter here which puts Glaze and the left guard on a double team against Illinois’ 4i-technique defensive end lined up in the B-gap.
While his pad level isn’t perfect at the point of contact, Glaze has decent knee bend to help maintain a powerful base. He also does a solid job of using his hands and upper body strength to get a leverage advantage on the defender which, combined with some assistance from the guard, allows him to stand up the defender.
Glaze then keeps his feet moving through contact and uncoils his hips to get several yards of vertical displacement on the end to the point where the end is pushed to the second level of the defense. That makes it easier for the offensive linemen to pick up the backside linebacker and spring the running back for a few more yards.
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This is a similar rep as the Terrapins run counter but has the backside guard and tackle pull with an inverted read-option action going on in the backfield. Also, Ohio State has a different front with a 3-technique defensive tackle instead of the 4i-tech end seen above. While it’s still a double team, that allows Glaze to turn this into more of a down block.
Right before contact, he gets hip-to-hip with the guard so the defensive tackle can’t split the double team. Then, we see another good example of the third-round pick bending his knees, maintaining a powerful base and uncoiling his hips after contact to generate some movement on the defender.
Glaze effectively kicks the defensive tackle out of the tackle’s gap, which creates a wide rushing lane for the quarterback to run through and pick up a chunk gain on the ground.
In the clip above, Maryland runs inside split zone with our subject on the backside of the play. Something that stands out about his game is he has a pretty quick get-off which helps eliminate the defensive tackle’s pre-snap alignment advantage since the defensive tackle is lined up inside of Glaze.
From there, it’s more of the same from what we’ve already seen; good knee bend (really good pad level this time), upper body strength and leg drive to help create a rushing lane. While the defensive tackle’s feet get tangled with the linebacker’s, this is a nice finish from Glaze as he stays engaged and ends the rep with his man on the ground.
Back to counter on this play, but Glaze is on the backside where he gets to pull this time.
He does need to pivot off of his outside foot instead of false-stepping (compare him to the left guard) which will help get to the landmark faster. That being said, Glaze does get there with enough time to avoid getting beat inside by the linebacker, it will just be more difficult to do that at the next level without cleaning up that technical flaw.
From there though, it’s another great example of Glaze using good technique at the point of attack to widen the backer out of the gap. He even finishes with the backer getting blocked out of the screen.
Moving onto a couple of reps in pass protection, the sideline angle is included here to get a good view of Glaze setting his base and anchoring in pass protection.
Jack Sawyer, the Buckeye’s defensive end, would have been drafted this year had he declared instead of going back to school and is a good power rusher. Sawyer has a nice long-arm move that he can put tackles on their heels with, which is what he tries to do to Glaze.
However, Glaze survives the initial contact and resets his base to avoid losing too much ground. Also, he does a good job of using his inside hand to pin Sawyer’s arm down, which helps him defend against and stop the inside pass rush move.
Granted, he’ll be going up against bigger defensive linemen but reps like this one are encouraging if Glaze ends up sliding inside to guard at the next level.
We’ll end with one more quality rep in pass protection.
Again, the Maryland product’s get-off stands out as he quickly gets out of his stance to reduce the space between him and the pass-rusher. He’s also patient to avoid over-setting, putting himself in a position to stay in front of an inside move.
