'Didn't blink, didn't flinch': How rookie DJ Glaze is making the most of his reps

Aug 07, 2024 at 04:50 PM

Levi Edwards

Digital Team Reporter

During one-on-one drills in the Raiders' first practice in pads, Thayer Munford Jr. was holding up on a block and tweaked his hand. He tried to go back in for another rep, but the minor injury was obviously bothering him.

Next man up: rookie DJ Glaze.

The Raiders drafted the offensive tackle, who played extensively in college on both sides of the line, in the third round of the 2024 draft. The plan initially seemed to be to ease Glaze in and let him adjust to the pros throughout camp.

But as practice progressed, he started to hold his own against some of the best defensive linemen on the team, including Maxx Crosby. During several periods, Crosby could even been seen giving Glaze some pointers and praising him for his tenacity as a young player.

"He showed up," Antonio Pierce said of Glaze. "He showed up in a big way. I mean, didn't blink, didn't flinch. Munford went down, and he popped in there and first rep was against Maxx. OK, that's always going to be tough. But as the practice went on, you just saw a guy growing."

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Now a week removed from Glaze going in for Munford, who's returned back to practice, the rookie tackle continues to see reps among the first-team offense. While he still has a long mountain to climb as a rookie, he's made several noticeable strides toward earning a role.

"Me being a rookie – I was always confident, I just never had the experience to really work it in there," Glaze told the media. "But once you get in there and you kind of get the reps underneath your belt, you just start seeing that at the end of the day, it's going to make me better. I'm just going to go into [everything] as confident as I can. I might lose, I may win, but I'm just going to wash away that rep and do what I've got to do to get better and work for the next rep."

Glaze has also made an impression on Tom Telesco, who echoed the same sentiment as Pierce when describing the rookie as a young player who doesn't seem to get rattled.

"DJ Glaze has been really incredible," Telesco said. "To start the camp the way he has at 21 years old, to block these guys he's been blocking, really happy to see that as a young player. It was cool to see on Tuesday, his first day in pads, everyone is a bit anxious especially a rookie at 21 years old. ... All of a sudden DJ is in the huddle, first snap of training camp full pads and he's got Maxx Crosby right there over him. And he held his own, which is hard."

"He doesn't get panicked which can happen for tackles, especially when you're facing big time people," Telesco added. "It's work we need, offensive lineman are hard to find but he's a little further along than I [had] anticipated right now."

Saturday could be a big day for the third-rounder as he could playing in his first NFL game. There will be added pressure as he steps on the field, considering his camp performance has put him on many radars.

But if there's one thing that's been discovered about Glaze early on, it's that he seems comfortable handling the pressure.

"It's been fun, it's been competition," Glaze said with a huge grin. "That's been the biggest thing for me – so much fun I'm having, so much knowledge I'm getting from the guys on both sides of the ball."