Cleveland Browns

Sign him up! Browns kicker Carey Spear hits like a linebacker

Published Jun. 5, 2015 10:32 a.m. ET

foxsports

If Carey Spear doesn't win the Browns kicking job, he may have a future as a special teams gunner.

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Ohio native has a few viral hits on YouTube from his playing days at Vanderbilt University, but you won't see anything special about his kicks in any of them. Spear is delivering the boom instead, racking up hits for his thunderous hits on kickoff returns.

Charles Bankins, special teams coach at Vanderbilt, tracked the hardest hits every season, and his kicker finished in the top spot for three straight years. Here he is lighting up current Viking Cordarrelle Patterson.

"The entire stadium would go crazy," Bankins told the Browns' official site. "The energy our team would get from his hits was tangible. Carey has this swag about him. Kickers like Carey are not a dime a dozen."

Spear's energy and leadership led to him being a three-time team captain, a rarity for kickers. While he works out hard in the weight room, his tackling techniques is not something he practices regularly.

"I just put my head down and run, man," Spear said. "When I get out there, I’m obviously smaller than most guys, but I’ll be prepared when that moment comes."

Spear spent training camp last season with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he lost out in the kicking competition to Cody Parkey, who went on to make the Pro Bowl.

This year, he'll face off against Travis Coons, another kicking neophyte who spent last summer with the Tennessee Titans, unless the team decides to bring in a veteran to compete.

Spear counts former Browns kicker Phil Dawson as one of his role models. Still in awe of fighting for a spot with his hometown team, he's back living at home with his parents, a 40-minute drive from the Browns' facilities in Berea.

If kickers were judged by their special teams tackling, Browns fans would love to have their hometown boy fittingly named Spear make the team.

h/t: Cleveland Browns