D.J. Fluker hasn’t played in an NFL game since Jan. 16, 2021, but the former Alabama standout hopes to return to the field in 2023.

Toward that end, Fluker participated in drills at Alabama’s pro day last week, displaying his football physique honed through the work that he’s been chronicling on his Instagram account.

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“Honestly, I really can’t wait to get back to playing,” Fluker said during an appearance this week on “The Michael Balko Show.” “I’ve taken some time to get myself back right and actually get my mental good. That’s what it comes down to. …

“I’m excited. I’m excited to see what happens. I got a lot of interest. A lot of people are glad to see me back playing. Offensive linemen, they are very hard to come by at this moment.”

LISTEN TO “FROM POVERTY TO PRIMETIME: THE STORY OF D.J. FLUKER”

Fluker hasn’t been completely out of football since his most recent game.

Fluker signed as a free agent with the Miami Dolphins before the 2021 season. Miami placed Fluker on injured reserve on July 29 and released the offensive lineman four days later with an injury settlement after he’d had meniscus surgery.

During the 2021 season, Fluker spent six weeks on the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad. He dressed for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Jan. 2 game but didn’t play after being signed two days earlier when the team had 20 players on reserve/COVID-19.

Fluker was out of football in 2022.

“I think the time away really told me who my friends are, who the people who cared about me as a person were,” Fluker said. “I think that really showed me a lot. And I was going through a hard time mentally. …

“I had to take time away to work on my family issues and things I had to deal with there. I guess in reality if I didn’t have that family that cared about me and friends that did stick around even when I didn’t play football, I don’t think I would be the person I am right now – to be in shape, to be more mentally stable or where I need to be at, have more structure. I don’t think I would have got to that point — as of right now, I can go back and play football right now — if it wasn’t for them.”

Fluker said he weighed as much as 427 pounds last year, but he’s shed nearly 100 pounds.

On his Instagram account on Wednesday, Fluker wrote: “Coming in this week lighter than last week. For everyone that has been in my corner even when I was struggling, this hard work is for you. For everyone that disappeared and talking that I’m taking steroids and PEDs, thank you. I take it as a compliment. If I can look like this without it, then, damn, I have no ceiling. Wait till you see this footwork. Whatever QB is behind me will not get touched.”

After working as the right tackle for Alabama’s 2011 and 2012 BCS national championship teams, Fluker entered the NFL as the 11th player picked in the 2013 NFL Draft. He played right tackle in his first two seasons and right guard in the next two with the San Diego Chargers.

Fluker had started all 59 of the games that he played for the Chargers and was supposed to be with the team in 2017 after it picked up its fifth-year option on his rookie contract in 2016. But the Chargers decided the option price for Fluker — $8.821 million — was too high, and they released him two days before that 2017 salary would have become guaranteed.

Fluker signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the New York Giants and played in nine games in 2017 before turf toe cut short his season, sending him into free agency again.

In 2018, Fluker signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks. He helped transform Seattle from one of the worst rushing teams in the NFL in 2017 to the best in 2018 with his work at right guard. Injuries caused Fluker to miss six games, and Seattle had an 8-2 record with him the lineup and a 2-4 mark without him during the regular season.

Fluker stayed with Seattle by signing a two-year, $6 million contract. He started 14 regular-season and two playoff games at right guard for the Seahawks in 2019, missing two games with a hamstring injury.

But after Seattle selected LSU right guard Damien Lewis in the 2020 NFL Draft’s third round, the Seahawks released Fluker with one season remaining on his contract, which cleared $4,187,500 off the team’s salary cap for 2020.

Fluker signed a one-year, $1.075 million contract to play Baltimore in 2021, and he played in every game and started half of them at right tackle that season.

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed the home of Fluker’s family in New Orleans, he prepped at McGill-Toolen in Mobile and Foley.

The head coach at Foley was Todd Watson, who is now the special assistant to Alabama coach Nick Saban. Fluker said he spoke with Watson while at the Crimson Tide’s pro day and reminisced about how the coach got him to return to football in his only year at the Baldwin County school.

“I was walking through the hallway, this guy, one of the coaches, said, ‘Ain’t you D.J. Fluker?’” Fluker said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ like that. He was like, ‘Don’t you play football?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I used to play football. I don’t play no more because I’m in the work world now. Trying to get me a job, work, make some money so we can have food on the table.’ He said, ‘Man, why don’t you come play football?’ I was like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I said, ‘I would play, but my shoulder’s torn.’ … He said, ‘I tell you what. What if I told you there’s a way to get your shoulder fixed? Would you play football?’ I said, ‘If you can do that, yeah, sure, I’ll play football. Sure. Why not? Why not give it a go?’ I did, and I’m actually glad I did.”

At pro day, Fluker said, Watson asked him, “‘Ain’t you glad, years later, that you played football?’ I was like, ‘Coach, honestly, I’m very grateful that I stuck with it because without you, I probably would not have played football ever again,’ so it was a very grateful moment for me.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.