DJ Fluker Has Me Excited

 

So, I've spent the afternoon watching DJ Fluker film. A first round pick in 2013, the obvious takeaway is that the man has talent – or that the (then) San Diego Chargers were desperate for offensive line help. The book on him as it was written before the 2020 season was that he was a bust.

You'll hear people say he lacks footwork, or that he's a liability in pass protection. Without access to All-22 Film (and motivation to take the hours and hours it would take to watch every snap of the 88 games he's played in) and the specific gameplans and philosophy of his former coaches, I'm not the person to tell you otherwise. But I'm going to anyway.

Instead of trying to act like I know what I'm talking about, I'm going to lay out my notes from the past few hours.

• Played with the run-heavy Giants and Seahawks before joining the historically 2020 Ravens.

• Great hair; strong, fast; his teams run the ball well.

• Don't see him on the ground often (you wouldn't in highlight reels).

• Rarely blocks only one man.

• Vocal leader.

• I see an excellent backpedal; gets his shoulder on people, excellent hand fighting.

• I see a man with a great relationship with his teammates, his coaches.

• Strong as hell.

• Drags his inside foot really well against speed rush; keeps his head up, hips anchored, back straight; seems to have excellent vision.

• Seems to play to the whistle; blocks his man out of the play, looks for someone else to block.

• Ends dudes in the run game.

• Heard one analyst say, “Once he gets attached, he stays attached.”

• Throws men to the ground consistently. (Including Ndumakong Suh, for you Dolphins fans out there).

It's difficult to say with any certainty whether rushing statistics with and without DJ Fluker for his teams are relevant. But at a glimpse, his teams get better at running the ball when he's on the team. It's a one- or two-hundred yard difference, and his teams weren't exactly consistent – especially the Chargers. (But Chargers gonna Charger, amiright?) My immediate and instant takeaway just from looking at the numbers (and remembering that he has only started all 16 games in a season a handful of his seven years as a pro) is that he's a guy his coaches trust to get it done in the running game. He's played with both statues at the quarterback position in Philip Rivers and Eli Manning and mobile quarterbacks in Russel Wilson and Lamar Jackson.

So here's what I'm thinking vis-a-vis Chris Grier and Brian Flores:

Miami needs to run the ball better— Let me emphasis that correctly. Miami NEEDS to run the ball better if Tua Tagovailoa is going to look like he's having any growth in year 2. Fluker can play either Guard or Tackle spot. Coming out of college, the pat on his back was that he could play Left Tackle if a coach wanted him to. At the Right Tackle spot in Baltimore, he was asked to line up against the defense's best pass rusher and their bully run stopper. (We can talk about the evolution of defensive-front attacks over the last decade another time – suffice to say for now it used to was that defenses put their best pass rusher on their right to attack the Quarterback's blind side; this is no longer specifically and only the case.)

As a lefty, the old school philosophy of your best pass-blocking Tackle being on the Left is reversed. I've heard coaches say of Miami that this isn't necessarily the case – that Miami might not actually run a left-handed offense where the dominant side of the run game is left and the first-look receiver is on the right. Whether Miami's Offensive Coordinators chose to run a left-handed offense is still a question mark and will be until at the very earliest Week 1 of the Regular Season. If I'm Chris Grier and Brian Flores, however, and I see that DJ Fluker is proficient on the right side, it's a no-brainer to me to shore up the right side with his talent.

Does this put Miami over the hump? Not necessarily – they still have to get a runner who can make things happen when the hole isn't blocked. But I do think this gives Tua more of a chance to succeed. As it stands, Fluker is the second-oldest player on the roster; and the oldest offensive lineman by a wide margin. Whether he's expected to be or has been promised to be a Day-1 starter, I can't know. But I do believe that his personality, his vocal leadership, his very obvious love of the game (seriously, watch his mic'd up videos if you want to watch a man just loving playing the game of football), and his veteran-ness (for lack of a better word) make him a shoe-in to make the roster. And to improve it right now.

For me, this is an A+++ signing.

It also signals that Miami will not be targeting either Penei Sewel or Rashawn Slater in the coming Draft. Why? Slater is who Peter Schrager has Miami targeting. Slater can play either Guard or Tackle. Fluker has played both.

If Grier/Flores et al thought that offensive line was a need, I can't imagine they only sign one lineman this offseason. I don't believe for a second they're trying to rebuild. I am firmly of the opinion they think they can coach up the guys they have. Fluker brings that work ethic you're looking for as a coach. More than that, he brings immediate competition to the position and a competent rotational skillset, should anyone go down. As someone whom the media and fanbases have labeled a bust, he can also teach his teammates to block out the permanently negative feedback the Miami media and Dolphins fans shower their offensive lines with.

I am excited about this signing.

Moving forward, I think there are only two real questions remaining: Whom do the Falcons and Bengals select and 4 and 5; and do Miami actually trade back from the 6 spot?

I think that if they think the Falcons are taking Kyle Pitts (because I think it makes too much sense for the Bengals to take either Sewel or Ja'Marr Chase) Miami trades back. I know I started (and then immediately abandoned) the thought experiment of how far back they could trade, hoping that Pitts would still be on the board a few posts ago. But let's say that Jerry Jones (or Steve) call them up with an Infatuation-type offer for 6 after the Falcons and Bengals don't take Pitts. Do I take the sure fire fire “gold jacket talent” a la Bucky Brooks, or do I collect picks in this and next year's draft? Is the 10^th pick still valuable in this draft?

Do the Dolphins switch gears and go defense, taking everybody's favorite Micah Parsons?

I don't know. In fact, having laser-focused my draft attention on Kyle Pitts, I don't have an opinion yet.

Thanks for reading. Do I dive into Micah Parsons for my next piece? Do they target Patrick Surtain II? (Boy, as a fan of those early-00s Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt defenses, it would most certainly be fun to see Surtain II on Miami's roster.) Do they target one of the Defensive Ends I looked at with my last post? We've got less than two weeks to find out. Hit me up on Twitter if you think I'm doing anything right, here. Actually, I'd love to know what you think I'm doing wrong for that matter.

Again, thanks for coming on this journey with me.