D.J. Fluker gets NFL workout in bid to return to league

D.J. Fluker gets NFL workout in bid to return to league

D.J. Fluker hasn’t appeared in an NFL game in the past two seasons, but the former Alabama offensive tackle worked out at the Crimson Tide’s pro day in March to show teams he’s ready to play again.

On Wednesday, Fluker is working out for the Philadelphia Eagles, NFL Network reported, his first reported individual visit with an NFL team since Alabama’s pro day.

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The Eagles already have six Alabama alumni on their offseason roster, tied with the Detroit Lions for the most in the NFL.

Fluker hasn’t been completely out of football since his most recent game on Jan. 3, 2021.

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.

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

After working as the right tackle for Alabama’s 2011 and 2012 BCS national championship team, 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 his family’s home in New Orleans, Fluker prepped at McGill-Toolen in Mobile and Foley.

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