Playing wide receiver at Georgia Military College before then transferring to Appalachian State and continuing to do so, Daniel Wilcox moved to tight end his senior season and caught 46 passes including seven for touchdowns.
He also caught the attention of some NFL teams.
But after hearing from several of them during the 2001 Draft, his name wasn't called. He, however, was called following the seventh and final round by those same teams about signing him as a free agent.
The Appalachian State standout's trail would then lead him to New York.
"It was more of a me and my agent's decision. We both thought that the Jets had the best roster for me to try to attack," Wilcox said. "I had about four or five other offers, but everybody else had two or three starting tight ends. The Jets only had one starting tight end at the time, Anthony Becht. James Dearth was the backup tight end, and he was also the starting long snapper.
"So I figured I had a better opportunity of making a roster there than anywhere else. Being an undrafted guy, I wasn't 100 percent sure if it was the right move at the time, but they really wanted me a lot. I had worked out for them and they showed a lot of interest. And so I jumped on board."
Even though Wilcox could have felt the Jets' enthusiasm about having him join the team and was excited about it, as it would turn out, he may have seemingly agreed to do so blindly.
"I was such a weird piece of their puzzle that I really didn't think I fit in very well into what they were trying to do, and they didn't know how to use me," Wilcox said. "Moving to tight end is what got me to the NFL, but when I got there, I was a hybrid and nobody had hybrids at the time. They really struggled with trying to figure out the best way to use me.
"Richie Anderson and Jerald Sowell were the fullbacks, and Richie and I had almost the same body type. Richie was a Pro Bowl fullback and so they decided to try to move me to that fullback spot. But I never played fullback. I wasn't really a fullback. But since I had the body type that Richie had, they thought it would be a good move and I made the transition. I did really well at it. I think the Jets were going to try to save me as long as they could and try to continue to develop me."
There are different speeds of development. For example, with cameras, DSLRs have a 1/8,000th of a second shutter speed. On the other hand, if you can even find a Polaroid, it'd take roughly about the time to eat a sandwich as it would to see a photograph. Either way, Wilcox found it frustrating.
"Yeah, I almost quit," he said. "My rookie year, I played in like three games, and my sophomore season, I didn't play in any games at all. They put me on the practice squad the entire year. And that was really, honestly… I kind of came to my breaking point. That's what made me decide to go ahead and leave the Jets to go to Tampa Bay (after signing to its 53-man roster)."
While his time with the Green & White didn't turn out as would have hoped, lining up beside the men that he did, produced fond memories.
"It's the players, my teammates," Wilcox said. "Vinny Testaverde was my quarterback. Chad Pennington was my backup quarterback. Curtis Martin was my starting tailback. I spent a ton of time with Chris Hayes, he was one of the starting safeties, but he was more of a special teams guy.
"He kind of took me under his wing and helped shape and mold me. And he was one of the first ones to kind of let me know I could actually play in the NFL, because I wasn't sure at first if I was good enough."
Wilcox would prove that he was indeed good enough. Following the Jets and time with Tampa Bay, where he was a member of the Super Bowl XXXVII team, he moved on to spend the next five years with Baltimore
Playing nine seasons in the NFL, Wilcox caught 76 passes for 576 yards and eight touchdowns. What makes him most proud of his career?
"I think just being around the players that I was around. I was around a bunch of Hall of Famers; Curtis Martin was one of those guys," Wilcox said. "Just spending time with my teammates, I learned so much from each and every last one of them. I feel like they helped develop me as a man, as a person, as a human being, as a father.
"The things that I took from the NFL, so many different life lessons, I would talk to you all night long about all the lessons I learned, how it's made me a better person."
During his playing days, Wilcox invested in residential properties, and after retiring from the game in 2009, transitioned into that as a second career and founded Wilcox Custom Homes in Atlanta, Georgia.
"Since I was a kid I've always been into architecture and the way buildings were built. I see a lot of different shapes all the time, and I kind of played football that way. I was more of a geometry-type kid," Wilcox said.
"So when I retired, I started renovating my properties and the guys that I was doing the renovations with, they had been in this business for a long time and started telling me, 'Some of the stuff you're doing, we've never done before. You've got a talent we've never seen. You should really think about starting your own company.' And that's what got me started."
Later stepping away from the business to coach football at the high school and college levels, and also train players for the NFL Combine, Wilcox decided to go back to the construction field.
"Getting back into the home business was kind of like a default thing," Wilcox said. "I got with a couple of buddies of mine and asked them if they would invest in a house and trust me to do the renovations. They did, and we bought the house together.
"That allowed me to get my company started back up again. What I learned the first time in this business is that you've got to be flexible. The guys that I work with are all subcontractors. Sometimes I hold on to them for a while. Sometimes I get rid of them. Depends on the quality of work they're doing. But every job is different."
Wilcox, who makes his home in suburban Atlanta with his wife, Shauna, and their sons: Tristan and Julian, continued.
"I'm a little bit more flexible than I used to be. At first, I only wanted to buy and flip homes. And now I do a bunch of renovations and remodels and bathrooms and kitchens and basements, because the market is ever-changing. It never stays the same.
"You think you've got it figured out, and then all of a sudden, the market crashes and you can't sell anything. So you have to be flexible in it. And I found a way to be flexible, to be able to make it make sense for me. So that's been the saving grace of the company. That's why I'm able to still work and stay busy."
