AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Dan Villari, Massapequa, NY native and former Syracuse tight end signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent.
Dan Villari who stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs 245 pounds, played football collegiately for Michigan and Syracuse and now will head out to Tinseltown as a tight end for the LA Rams. Villari grew up in Massapequa on Long Island, NY and played quarterback while attending Plainedge High School. During his senior year in 2019, the signal caller led his team to the Long Island championship going 12-0 and amassed over 1,300 passing yards, 1,500 rushing yards, with 13 touchdown tosses and 25 rushing touchdowns and esteemed the laurels of the Tom Thorp Award as the best football player in Nassau County and the Don Snyder Award as the counties best quarterback.
Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com
After not playing in his first season of college football in 2020, the towering quarterback played 4 games in 2021 for Michigan completing a pass for 26 yards for the Wolverines and rushed for 9 carries and 35 yards. He transferred to Syracuse in 2022 where the Long Island native was nicknamed “Thunder Dan.” He converted to tight end and played 7 games during the fall of 2022 with a catch for 22 yards. In 2023, the Plainedge alumnus was multifaceted playing quarterback and tight end. In 13 games he was 23 out of 33 for 177 passing yards with 2 interceptions and a passing touchdown summating a 69.7 completion percentage and 112.6 rating. The lofty footballer ran the ball 55 times for 326 yards scoring 2 touchdowns laminating 5.9 yards per attempt and 25.1 yards per game and on the receiving side of the ball he caught 20 footballs totaling 180 yards with 9 yards per reception and 13.8 yards per game. In the Boca Raton Bowl, Villari was 4 for 11 with 55 yards in the air and ran for 37 yards on 11 carries. Villari’s season high on the ground came in November of that season. On 17 attempts in a win over Pittsburgh the well-rounded footballer ran for 154 yards with a season high 38-yard run and a 27-yard touchdown run.
Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire
In his third season with the Syracuse Orange in 2024 playing a dozen games, Villari played only the tight end position with 12 rushes for 29 yards and a touchdown and reeled in 6 passes for 57 yards tallying 9.5 yards per reception. In his final season on the NCAA gridiron, the burly redshirt senior played in all twelve games for the Orange, ran the ball 17 times for 55 yards and a touchdown and snagged 39 passes for 412 yards averaging 10.6 yards per catch and his longest reception was a 35-yard catch and run at Georgia Tech last October.
Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com
Villari played 48 games of college football with 93 rushing attempts for 445 yards, found the end zone 4 times, registered 66 receptions for 671 receiving yards averaging 10.2 yards per catch and 14 yards per game, and snared 3 touchdowns in the air. Post the NFL Draft Villari signed as an undrafted free agent and will report to minicamp this week in La-La Land with the Rams and their high-powered offense led by head coach Sean McVay and reigning NFL MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford who made a trip to the NFC Championship Game last season.
photo by: N. Scott Trimble
Jordan Stankovich
My name is Jordan Stankovich. I am a journalist on Long Island. I have been in the journalism field for 5 years. I am a sports reporter for the Suffolk County News, the Long Island Advance, the Islip Bulletin, and the Tide of Moriches and Manorville. Beat writer for the Suffolk County Stingrays minor league basketball team in the ABA. On substack I cover current topics about the pro New York teams and sports history. I have an avid passion for sports history and statistics.
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