D.J. Fluker’s most recent NFL action came on Jan. 16, 2021, in the Baltimore Ravens’ 17-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC playoffs, and the former first-round pick from Alabama has been out of football since being released by the Las Vegas Raiders on April 5, 2024.

But the offensive lineman is attempting a comeback in the United Football League after signing with the DC Defenders. The UFL team lists Fluker on its roster as a 6-foot-5, 339-pound guard.

The Defenders opened training camp on Monday in Arlington, Texas. DC plays its first game of the 2025 season on March 30, when the Birmingham Stallions visit Audi Field. Former Alabama State standout and coach Reggie Barlow is the Defenders’ coach.

Since his most recent NFL game, Fluker signed as a free agent with the Miami Dolphins before the 2021 season. Miami placed Fluker on injured reserve on July 29, 2021, and released him four days later with an injury settlement after he’d had meniscus surgery.

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

Fluker was out of football in 2022.

Fluker used social media to record his efforts to get back into shape and return to the NFL after his weight climbed to 427 pounds. He participated in Alabama’s pro day in March 2023.

Fluker returned to the NFL on Dec. 12, 2023, when Las Vegas signed him for its practice squad. He was with the Raiders for the final four weeks of the regular season, and Las Vegas re-signed Fluker on Jan. 8, 2024, the day after its season ended with a 27-14 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Fluker has played in 108 regular-season and seven playoff games, with 101 starts, during his NFL career, which started as the 11th pick in the 2013 draft.

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed the home of his family in New Orleans, Fluker prepped at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile and Foley High School.

Fluker worked as the right tackle for Alabama’s 2011 and 2012 BCS national championship teams, and 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 2020, and he played in every game and started half of them at right tackle that season.

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