How Brandon Aubrey helped the Cowboys move on after Brett Maher play-off disaster

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To be an NFL kicker, you need a strong leg, but arguably more important is having a strong mind.

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy thought he had both in the form of Brett Maher heading into the playoffs last season before things went off the rails.

Maher ended 2022 with a solid 29/32 on field goals, including 9/11 on attempts of 50+ yards, while becoming the first kicker in league history to make four career field goals of 60 yards or more.

Fast forward to January 22, 2023, in their Wild Card contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it was the beginning of the end for Maher in Cowboy colours as he set the wrong kind of history, missing four of his five extra points, the most in a game since extra points were first tracked in 1932.

Dallas was clearly in the market for new blood to handle the placekicking duties, but there were more than a few eyebrows raised when they signed Brandon Aubrey, a first overall selection in the Major League Soccer (MLS) SuperDraft by Toronto FC in 2017.

Journey to the top

He never featured for Toronto in MLS and played a season for Bethlehem Steel in the United Soccer League (USL) before shifting his focus to an office career, using his Notre Dame degree to become a software engineer.

The story is that he and his wife were watching an NFL game in 2019 when a placekicker missed a field goal, and his wife told him, “You can do that”.

Aubrey spent three years from 2019-2022 with a kicking coach to become a high-level kicker, eventually being drafted by the Birmingham Stallions in the 2022 USFL draft.

The native of St. Louis won the USFL title in back-to-back seasons and was named to the All-USFL team in 2022; only missing five of his 37 field goal attempts in two years at Birmingham.

Back in July his contract in Birmingham was terminated, paving the way for him to join the NFL.

Making the most of his opportunity

Since coming to the Big D, the former Fighting Irish defender has taken the bull by the horns, going a perfect 14/14 on field goal attempts thus far, with the highest touchback percentage in the league after five weeks (96.9%), as only one of his 32 kickoffs has been returned.

A minor hiccup would be that he has missed one of his seven extra points but given his background and lack of experience compared to other seasoned NFL kickers, Aubrey’s been a pleasant surprise thus far.

One might point out that half of his field goal attempts this year have been chip shots between 20-29 yards, but he is also 2/2 on kicks from 50-59 yards, and Aubrey is tied for the fifth-longest field goal made this year (55 yards).

He made three field goals in his three championship games in the USFL, and his two in 2022 proved vital when Baltimore defeated the Philadelphia Stars 33-30, so he has stepped up when needed in big games.