FRISCO, Texas -- How popular is All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey among his Dallas Cowboys teammates?
After a first year in the NFL in which he drained an NFL-record 35 field goals in a row to start his career, and with a league-high 36 made field goals on his 38 attempts in 2023, they were impressed. Following his make of a 66-yard kick at the Cleveland Browns in Week 1 that got nullified by a delay of game penalty, his teammates don't even need to hear the end of questions asked about Aubrey to start expressing their awe for their kicker.
"He's fantastic. I can't even let you finish," Cowboys All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said on Sept. 12 in the lead-up to Week 2. "But yeah, it's phenomenal bro to see how effortless [he is]. I mean obviously he works week in and week out here, and we see it. But for him to go out there and just nonchalantly kick a 63-yarder before they called timeout … [66] Oh, I'm sorry. Sixty-six. But, yeah, honestly I was a huge advocate of letting him kick the 70-yarder (71). But I mean it is what it is. But I have so much more confidence in him. The team, he's put so much confidence within us and him so it's no doubt in our mind."
Aubrey is back at it again in 2024: he is 8-for-8 on field goals, including 3-for-3 on kicks from 50 plus yards. His most recent make from beyond 50, a 52-yard make in the first quarter against the New Orleans Saints in Week 2, was his 13th made kick from beyond 50 in a row to start his NFL career. That's an NFL record.
"We with it," Lamb said when asked if Aubrey should kick from 70-plus yards.
"I'd give him 75 especially indoors," Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said on Sept. 12 in the lead-up to Week 2. "Yeah, it's crazy. It's a blessing, not anything I take for granted. Me, I want to take a little bit off his pressure off his plate and score touchdowns. Rest his leg a little bit. Let him just kick some of those easy PATs, and we've got to do our part and rest him. But I know if we need him, he's going to step up and make the play."
Sixty-six yards is the current record for the NFL's longest made field goal, and it's owned by the Cowboys' Week 3 opponent in Baltimore Ravens five-time First Team All-Pro Justin Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history (89.9% career field goal percentage). Aubrey's 95.7% field goal percentage on 46 field goal attempts (44-for-46) will show up on the all-time leaderboard once he attempts 100 career field goals, only 54 more to go. However, Tucker's longest field goal record is in range now in Aubrey's mind.
"Yeah, absolutely," Aubrey said Wednesday when asked if he thinks about that record. "Any time you can get your name in the record book, it's pretty fun. So any way I can do that would be awesome."
He credits his own confidence, plus punter Bryan Anger (his holder), long snapper Trent Sieg and his lineman for his ownership of the most made field goals in a row from 50-plus yards to start an NFL career.
"Knowing that that's in my range and then having the confidence in the operation and blocking team around me to know that I can go out there and hit that ball," Aubrey said. "So they take away all the variables for me. I just go out there and hit a clean ball."
So what range does the confidence stop and what's the longest distance in which he could still make a field goal? That's a mystery box the Cowboys will open in a game when the situation calls for Dallas to do so.
"Just wait and see," Aubrey said. "We don't really practice from back there [70-plus]. We'll just have to see. They'll keep calling it if the situation pops up and one day we'll end up short and call it that. ... Anything north of 75 [yards starts sounding pretty crazy."
Sure, Aubrey desires Tucker's longest made field goal record, but he refuses to regularly practice any distance that starts with a seven. Why? Because he'd rather maintain his accuracy.
"It just makes bad habits to practice from there," Aubrey said of 70-plus yards. "In game, you have a little bit more juice, so it goes a little further. If I go back to practicing 70-yard field goals, my ball flight is going to get lower. I'm going to be more aggressive at the ball and start losing my consistency. So not something I want to practice."
Aubrey's special teams coordinator with the Cowboys, John "Bones" Fassel, has been an NFL special teams coordinator for nearly 20 seasons -- 17 to be exact (2005-present) with three different teams. He's coached Sebastian Janikowski in a stop with the Raiders (2008-2011), Greg Zuerlein with the Rams (2012-2019) and now Aubrey in Dallas on head coach Mike McCarthy's staff. He knows kicking.
What he can't quite put a finger on is why not only Aubrey but almost the entire NFL is cash money on field goals from 50 yards or deeper in 2024. According to CBS Sports Research, NFL kickers are a collective 35 of 39 (89.7%) on field goals from 50 yards or further in 2024, which is the best league-wide rate on field goals of 50 plus yards through the first two weeks of a season since 2008 when kickers went 10-for-11 (90.9%). Ironically enough, two of the four misses around the league are off of Tucker's leg.
"I don't know," Fassel said on Monday when asked when kickers got this good from deep. "It's incredible. I don't know if it's good weather, fresh legs. We get three balls, three K balls to really work for about an hour before the game to get them into game shape. I think the equipment managers are doctoring up three balls very well and legally. ... I think it all contributes to really good kickers. ... So when you say [Aubrey has hit] 13 in a row [from] 50 plus, I honestly don't know that or any of those stats. ... I just know he's pretty damn good. ... We feel our [Aubrey's] range is near unlimited."
Aubrey's theory is simple: today's kickers "are just better."
"I still think it's [kicking from 50-plus yards] as difficult as it used to be. I think the kickers are just better," Aubrey said. "Guys practice more. You have spring leagues that are providing more opportunities for guys. The coaching is better, you're paying guys more money to do it. So at a younger age, people are starting to do it because they know that's a career path they can have and then guys are just better. No better way of saying it."
Handling budding stardom
Aubrey's ascent to being a football star has arrived quickly. From 2019-2021, he was a software engineer after brief MLS stint. Then, the USFL and Cowboys opportunities came. Today, he has Lamb and Prescott singing his praises and artist Post Malone wearing his jersey while performing at concerts. However, he stays focused because he knows the second he starts missing field goals, life will shift once again.
"It's crazy for sure," Aubrey said. "It comes with being a Cowboy, and it's something you can't really prepare yourself for. I'm an older, veteran or an older rookie last year [28]. So I kind of matured through my failures in the MLS and all those things serve as distractions and realistically, I've come here to kick balls and just got to remind myself of that when you see something like that. It's like, 'oh, that's really cool.' But you know that all stops once I start missing field goals. So keep the main thing, the main thing."
— Post Malone (@PostMalone) September 10, 2024
Aubrey has his wife, Jenn, to thank for what's happening right now for this lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. The Plano, Texas, native said she does remind him that it was her suggestion that he pursue a football kicking career when the two were sitting on the couch watching a Cowboys game.
"Yes, but in a good way," Aubrey said smiling. "Just kind of a 'I knew you could do it.' Not so much 'I told you so.'"
