Getty Brett Maher
It was Brett Maher’s job to lose, and he won.
Making official what was already obvious, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said at the team’s Kickoff Luncheon on Wednesday that he’s comfortable heading into the regular season with Maher as the main foot.
“We have all the confidence in the world in our kicker,” Jones said, via The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “I don’t see anything changing there.”
Dallas’ primary kicker in 2018, replacing former All-Pro Dan Bailey, whom the club surprisingly released last September, Maher drilled 29 of 36 field goal attempts (80.6 percent), with a long make of 62 yards, and was 32-for-33 on extra points. He registered 52 touchbacks and only 25 of his kickoffs were fielded at 26.5 yards per return.
Maher, previously employed by the Canadian Football League, returned this offseason as the default K1, but began to display inconsistent tendencies during training camp. He went 3-of-4 in the Cowboys’ preseason-opening loss to the 49ers, blowing a 35-yarder, and missed his lone attempt the following week against the Rams.
Apparently, what Maher has done, and can do, outweighed what he can’t, and hasn’t.
“Well, I thought it was good,” Dallas owner Jerry Jones said Aug. 11 after the San Francisco game, via the Dallas Morning News. “That’s the only way we scored tonight. You’d like for him to hit them all but I’m glad he got the ones he got. But seriously I think we’re kind of looking at just continued as he gets in his camp, we’ve got a lot more camp days. We’ll continue to evaluate it. In his case, we’ll evaluate last year and this year just to sum it up and so don’t have any different opinion about him after the game than we had before the game.”
For what it’s worth — seemingly plenty — Maher was a perfect two-for-two in the Cowboys’ dress rehearsal victory over the Texans, hitting from 36 yards and 23 yards amid the 34-0 rout.
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Cowboys Looking to Unload Linemen?
Maher’s spot on the 53-man roster is safe, written in pen until it’s cemented Saturday, also known as cutdown day. The same cannot be said about a select few of his teammates who face the prospect of wearing another uniform by week’s end.
These teammates are likely to play along the offensive or defensive line, as Stephen Jones revealed Wednesday that the club has received trade calls about backup linemen. While Jones wouldn’t say who specifically is being dangled, he acknowledged “there’s a possibility for sure” that he executes a swap in the near future.
“We do get calls on both the offensive and defensive line,” Jones added, via the Dallas Morning News. “We’ve made that a priority over the years, and it’s a strength of ours. Teams are interested in it.”
Jones Receptive to Prescott, Cooper
The Cowboys’ franchise quarterback and his top wide receiver are both scheduled to hit free agency in 2020, creating additional headaches for a front office that has its hands full with Ezekiel Elliott, now on Day 35 of his ballyhooed holdout.
Fear not, the brain trust is unbothered by the prospect (slim as it may be) of losing both offensive building blocks. In fact, the negotiating window for Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper was cracked even wider.
“We’re open for business,” Stephen Jones said Wednesday, per the team’s official website. “We don’t put any deadlines on anything.”
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