Kicker played at COC, then UNLV and Oklahoma State, before signing
After going undrafted in the 2023 NFL draft, Saugus High School alumnus Tanner Brown found a home not too far from his hometown.
The kicker, who played two years at College of the Canyons before transferring to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and then Oklahoma State University, signed with the Los Angeles Rams, the team announced in a news release on Monday.
“We are very proud and excited for Tanner,” Saugus football head coach Jason Bornn told The Signal via text message. “He was a tremendous asset for us as a kicker and an outstanding human being. He worked very hard to get to this point in his life and career, and now that he gets to play for our home team, the Rams, we couldn’t be happier for him.”
The 2018 Saugus High School graduate, who also starred for the Centurions’ boys’ soccer team, went 7-of-11 on field goal attempts during his senior season and 16-of-18 on PATs. During his two seasons at COC, Brown went 28-of-38 on field goals and missed just two of his 102 PATs, making all 44 of his attempts as a freshman in 2018.
“When we recruited Tanner out of Saugus, I mean, we knew he was special,” COC head coach Ted Iacenda said in a phone interview with The Signal. “He had a giant leg and we were extremely excited to get him in our program. He solved so many issues day one as freshman, where, at our level, usually freshmen don’t have that kind of impact. He was impacting games immediately on kickoffs, and, obviously, with his long field goals.”
After a brief stop at UNLV in 2020, Brown made the Oklahoma State team as a walk-on and earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors as a senior in 2021, going 17-of-21 on field goal attempts and making all 36 of his PATs.
As a fifth-year senior in 2022, Brown, named a team captain by his teammates, hit 22-of-23 field goals, a 95.7% clip that ranked third in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He was named second team All-Big 12 by both the coaches and the Associated Press, and was also a nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy, given to the best FBS player who started his career as a walk-on, and a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award.
“We’ve been watching him, you know, tear it up the last couple of years on national TV and on some of the biggest football stages in the country, and it’s not surprising to us at all that he’s had this success,” Iacenda said. “We knew he was that type of talent coming out of high school.”
Brown was one of two undrafted kickers to sign for the Rams on Monday. The team also announced the signing of North Carolina State graduate Christopher Dunn, an AP All-American selection in 2022 and the winner of the Lou Groza Award. Dunn never missed a PAT during his five years at NC State, making all 200 of his attempts.
Iacenda is confident that Brown will make the most of his opportunity to break camp with the Rams, and is excited to see him at training camp and, hopefully one day, at SoFi Stadium.
“We’re so proud because, you know, we’ve known it for a while now, and obviously the rest of the world has seen it,” Iacenda said. “To be able to go down and watch him at camp or watch him at practice or watch him at games is obviously something that is extremely exciting. And, you know, as a coach, as one of his former coaches, I have every plan to go down there and check them out and support him and, obviously, hope to see him on TV in the fall and in person.”
The Rams are holding offseason workouts through the end of May and the beginning of June. Mandatory minicamp is scheduled to be held June 13-15.
The NFL season kicks off on Sept. 7, with the full schedule set to be released this month.
