Much like the Pittsburgh Steelers, there have been two rookies starting on the Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive line. Steelers fans who followed the 2024 NFL Draft should be well-acquainted with OG Jackson Powers-Johnson. But they also have DJ Glaze playing at right tackle for the last three weeks. They were second- and third-round picks respectively.
Glaze has the difficult task this week of facing the best in the business. As the right tackle, he will primarily have to deal with T.J. Watt.
“I feel like the coaches did a good job on the plan that they put in,” Glaze said in a video on the Raiders’ YouTube channel. “We kind of know going in who we’re gonna attack, what we’re gonna do. So just kind of us that, try to get these guys free running our angles, just rip it off the ball. Like I said, it’s gonna be a fist fight, so we’re just gonna try to open holes up and hopefully those guys hit it, and we can see some big runs.”
The Raiders likely will be relying on the run game a little more in Week 6. They benched QB Gardner Minshew II and turned back to Aidan O’Connell. He started 10 games for the Raiders last year as a rookie and finished with a 5-5 record, completing 62.1 percent of his passes for 2,218 yards, 12 touchdowns, and seven interceptions.
It is going to be a challenge for the Raiders, who have the third-worst rushing offense in the league. They are gaining just 84 yards per game on the ground so far. That being said, the Steelers allowed the Cowboys to run the ball well despite them being the second-worst rushing offense in the league coming into the game last Sunday. There can’t be a repeat performance or a trend emerging in this game. The Steelers’ defense has potential to be elite, and it needs to play to that standard.
One of the matchups that can be exploited is Watt versus Glaze.
“Great player, great rusher,” Glaze said. “We’re gonna do things we need to do to make sure we slow him down as much as possible. But just going in expecting to fight. He’s gonna throw his best. Relentless player. He is going to mix things up give me different moves or what not, so I’m just gonna go and be disciplined. Like I said, we have things in place to kind of slow him down when we need to.”
Much like the Steelers won’t be able to leave Maxx Crosby on an island, the Raiders certainly can’t leave Watt on an island. In pretty much every week of the season so far, there have been some opposing coaches or players mentioning a “plan” to slow down T.J. Watt. It hasn’t been Watt’s most gaudy start in terms of box-score statistics, but he is still playing dominant football.
Most teams have opted to chip him at an incredibly high rate. He is being chipped way more than any player in the league, according to Pro Football Focus, and he still has 4.5 sacks with two more strip-sacks that were negated due to penalties.
It will be easier for the Raiders to pay him extra attention this week with Nick Herbig, Alex Highsmith, and DeMarvin Leal all out of the lineup with injuries. That puts extra pressure on Watt to provide the pass rush that the defense needs to be effective.
