Arizona Cardinals select Florida Gators OT D.J. Humphries with No. 24 pick of 2015 NFL Draft

By Adam Silverstein
April 30, 2015

An athletic lineman who raised his stock significantly over the last few months, Florida Gators offensive tackle D.J. Humphries was selected by the Arizona Cardinals with the No. 24 overall pick in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft on Thursday evening.

Humphries, an early entrant whose draft declaration came as a surprise to some due to his level of production with the Gators, was quickly recognized by analysts as one of the top offensive tackles available in the draft and soon given a first-round grade. Since leaving Florida, Humphries has gained 23 pounds with the increase in size calming a lot of concerns held by scouts and front office executives.


He is seen as a player who is rough and tough with an edge and possesses a high ceiling. Humphries’s athleticism and versatility as a second-level blocker allowed him to stand out from his competition on draft day.

Starting 19-of-29 games over the last three seasons, Humphries missed seven contests over the last two campaigns due to injury. His health has never been a concern for teams, however.

Humphries is the 13th Florida player to be drafted in the first round of the draft in the last nine years and 48th in school history, dating back to 1936. He is also the seventh Gators player to be picked by the Cardinals franchise in the history of the NFL Draft (third since the team moved to the state of Arizona, following Johnny Rutledge in 1999) and will be the only UF player on the team’s roster.

Marcus Gilbert (2011) was the last Florida offensive tackle selected in the draft.

Earlier Thursday evening, defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. was selected No. 3 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Round 1 – No. 24
D.J. Humphries, OT
Arizona Cardinals


Height: 6’5″ – Weight: 307 lbs.
Age: 21 – Class: Junior

7 Comments

  1. 1974Gator says:

    I could say that it’s amazing what a good fitness strategy and the lure of big bucks can do for a poser’s motivation. But what really concerns me is how good Summers is or that the talent we have remaining is so bad that DJ couldn’t do it all himself last season.
    What a day for Gators! We lose the best b’ball coach ever and one of the best OTs we didn’t know we had. Let’s hope that Foley gets us a new b’ball coach our players will stay in school and play for and that our football coaches can motivate our players to play to their full potentials. Those are their jobs as coaches, right?

    • Mike The Red says:

      Keep in mind that Summers got hired to clean up the mess. Give him some time.

      However, I am also curious how a team that just produced two first round draft picks could have been so bad. I hate to beat a dead horse, but Muschamp really was a horrible coach.

      • 1974Gator says:

        Summers was on Muschamp’s staff and was retained by Mac.

        • Mike The Red says:

          I realize that, but our OL problems did not emerge overnight. They will not get solved overnight either. It will take another season or two to fix our problems.

  2. Mike The Red says:

    Good for DJ Humphries. That is great! Go Gators!

  3. Ken (CA) says:

    Guess we were wrong and the people advising him to leave early were right. I was surprised early in the draft to see him on Kiper’s “best available” list as the 3rd best O lineman available.

    • G2 says:

      Maybe based on potential and not necessarily performance at UF. Think the combine helped move him up, he is an athletic guy for his size.
      Another thing I wonder about is how he was able to gain so much weight after he declared for the draft, but not while he was in school. He was a bit undersized his entire career.

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