A free agent in 2019, Daniel Brown's previous stop in Chicago led to New York becoming the leading prospective place for where he'd land next.
Entering his fifth season in the league after playing for Baltimore and the Bears, the tight end was familiar with a few of the Jets' coaches who had joined first-year head coach Adam Gase's staff, which helped steer him to signing with the Green & White.
"My last year in Chicago, I didn't quite play as much offensively as I would hope for," Brown said. "I was kind of looking for a fresh start somewhere else and had a mutual connection with the Jets' offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, who was my offensive coordinator in Chicago when I got there in 2016, and I played a lot under him.
"So I was familiar with that offense and I had learned quickly that if you're not a first- or a second-string guy, you're really only going to survive in this league by playing special teams. And I took it very seriously. Obviously, I had a receiving background and also a special teams background and the ability to play multiple positions, so that's what they expected of me when I signed."
Playing in every game with five starts during his first season with the Jets, Brown was on the field for nearly 30 percent of the offensive snaps and almost 70 percent of the special teams plays, and contributed with six tackles and seven catches for 72 yards and a touchdown.
"We started off really slow that year and ended up winning a bunch of games in the second half," Anderson said. "But that Washington week where I scored a (20-yard) touchdown, the first touchdown of the game, and then Ryan Griffin had a big day that day (with five catches for 109 yards and a touchdown), that's probably one of my fondest memories."
Leading the Jets with 335 special teams snaps the following year, and doing so again in 2021, that season became a memorable as well as a surprising one for Brown, when after playing in the first seven games, he was traded to Kansas City for guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.
"To be honest, I was kind of caught off guard because we'd just come off, I would say, a morale-boosting win. Mike White had stepped in as quarterback that week and we beat the Bengals," Anderson said. "I think it was 15 minutes before the trade deadline, and they pulled me out of meetings and told me that (the GM) Joe (Douglas) needed to see me. Immediately, my mind goes to a dark place because I've been in that situation before.
"He said that I had been traded, and I think I was more shocked than anything. I was like, 'Why is somebody trading for a third-, fourth-string tight end who plays special teams?' And he said, 'It's the last move that we want to make, but we have to make it.' And then he said the door was never closed in the future for me. It was a move they needed to make."
So after making his way to Kansas City, the Chiefs kept Brown inactive for two games. And then…
"The Saturday after our walk-through practice (before a third game), they pulled me up to their office and said they needed to make room for a roster spot because they wanted to pull a guy off I.R.," Anderson said. "And I kind of had that feeling because there was no real sense of urgency there to get me involved. To be honest with you, I think they needed a tight end more so for practice. So I wasn't really blindsided by it.
"They told me they were going to release me, and they wanted me back on the practice squad. And my initial reaction was that the Jets told me that the door was never closed there. So the first person I called was (New York's special teams coordinator) Brant Boyer and told him that I had been released. Me and him were very close based off my special teams ties, and he said, 'Hold on. Let me talk to some people.'
"Sure enough, I didn't re-sign with the Chiefs practice squad and I think I was home for one week, and the Jets re-signed me to their practice squad. And at that time, you had the COVID rules where you could bring somebody up. So I played in every game the last six weeks from the practice squad, just based off of the COVID rules.
"I wanted to go somewhere where I could contribute on the field, and I knew that going back to New York, I would have a place to get on the field almost immediately. And even though we didn't have the season we wanted, you could kind of tell that things were turning in the right direction. I enjoyed the 2021 season just based off of the camaraderie that we had in that locker room."
Retiring in 2023 after seven seasons in the NFL – doubling the average length – what makes Brown most proud of his career?
"Just defying the odds based off of the path that I took. I wasn't drafted and had one shot after the draft, and it was a rookie mini-camp invite with the Ravens as a wide receiver. Fortunately, I did well enough there, kind of got my foot in the door, and they signed me," he said.
"It's not an easy path to go from a tryout kid to make it seven years. I think I was cut seven or eight times in my career, especially early on. So I think just the perseverance and the mindset to know that I belonged in the league. I just didn't really take no for an answer and ended up doing anything that I could do. I tried to be the smartest player in the room and know how to play every position, whether with special teams or offense."
Now making his home in Chicago with his girlfriend, Mollie Stevens, an All-American lacrosse player at the University of Florida who went on to play professionally, Brown is living out his passion as a car enthusiast by working at Chicago Auto Pros.
"We're more of a high-end retail shop. They have a very good reputation in this area, so we get a lot of exotic cars, a lot of cars that people care about," Brown said. "And even though I'm a Ford guy, I appreciate all sorts of vehicles. Not everybody's fortunate enough to get to drive Lamborghinis or Ferraris or Porsches every day, and I get to do that. I get to clean them and work on them. And we get to make customers happy because they care about protecting their investments in vehicles."
And the best thing about being Daniel Brown today…
"I mean, I'm a humble guy, so I don't think there's anything too great about being me. My parents just raised me to be that way," he said. "Not a lot of people from where I'm from (Windsor, VA) get to go on and do the things that I got to do or experience. I was the first kid from my school to play a Division I sport.
"I think I have a cool story and it can probably help younger people who get frustrated about where they come from. And then also, I've been fortunate enough to find a hobby that I can do for a living. It doesn't feel like work, and it's fun. So I would probably say that's the greatest thing about being me right now."
