The Buffalo Bills selected offensive tackle Spencer Brown with the 30th pick of the third round (93rd overall) during Day 2 of the NFL Draft on Friday.
Here are five things to know.
1. His career at Northern Iowa
Brown went from being a zero-star recruit to becoming a stalwart on the offensive line for FCS Northern Iowa. The 6-foot-8, 314-pound lineman started every game at right tackle and earned second team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors.
He was named a preseason FCS All-American in 2020 before the season was postponed.
2. A multi-sport background
Brown competed in football, basketball, golf, and track at Lenox High School in his hometown Lenox, Iowa. The school, nestled in a town with a population of 1,407 as of 2010, fielded an eight-player team.
Brown played tight end in addition to fighting through double teams to rack up 17 sacks as a senior and earned first-team all-state honors.
3. An unlikely story
Given his small-town background, there was a time when Brown did not expect college football to be in his future.
"Never thought I would," he told the Des Moines Register in 2015. "Never even put it in my head. I just thought, 'OK, I'm a small-town kid, we play high school football for four years and then we go on with our lives.'"
4. True to himself
Brown had offers from Power 5 schools after the FCS postponed the 2020 season to spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He turned down the opportunity out of allegiance to Northern Iowa.
"I am not going to let someone else reap the benefits of what UNI did for me," Brown wrote on his Twitter account. "I did not want to go somewhere and be under a system of guys that didn't like me from the start. I'd never do that."
5. Panthers history
Brown becomes the first player from Northern Iowa drafted by the Bills.
