Not long ago, it appeared that a rocky road was ahead for the Dallas Cowboys when it comes to contracts and holdouts and the usual bookkeeping drama that so often sucks the life out of the team’s training camps. And it was not just George Pickens and the franchise tag–there was some wrestling going on with kicker Brandon Aubrey, arguably the best kicker in the NFL.
As with Pickens, though, the Cowboys got the situation with Aubrey settled surprisingly–almost shockingly–early, before the NFL draft. The numbers were not what Aubrey wanted, but the reality is that Aubrey was a restricted free agents, and once the opportunity for another team to sign him had passed, the Cowboys held all the leverage. Aubrey was reported to be after a $10 million per year payout, and he wound up with $7 million per year on a four-year, $28 million contract.
That was still a record among kickers, which was briefly held by Ka’imi Fairbairn of the Texans at $6.5 million per year.
Long Road to Cowboys for Brandon Aubrey
Aubrey has had a remarkable career path, from college star soccer player to MLS washout who decided to take a chance on placekicking, and earned a spot with Birmingham of the USFL. After a successful stint with the Stallions, he latched on with the Cowboys and has been one of the best kickers in the NFL since.
Over his career, Aubrey has made 88.2% of his field goals (112 of 127) and 96.9% of his extra points (126 of 130). He has made 35 of the 44 career attempts of 50 yards or more in his career, and has never missed a field goal of less than 30 yards.
Bold Prediction for Cowboys Kicker
But the high-level stat crunchers point out that, as good as Aubrey has been in his career with the Cowboys, he has never led the league in one statistic in particular, one considered the gold standard for the position: Most field goals over expected. That is a metric that takes into account the difficulty of the kicks he is attempting, and Fairbairn led in that metric last year.
ESPN’s Seth Walder, though, predicts that after three silver-medal spots in the category, Aubrey is poised to change that.
His “bold prediction” for the Cowboys in 2026, from an article this weekend: “Kicker Brandon Aubrey will record the most field goals over expected, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Even though Aubrey is an elite kicker who earned a record-setting extension this offseason, he has never led the league in that metric. Incredibly, Aubrey has finished second in every season of his three-year career.”
Brandon Aubrey Named a Captain
Aubrey was named one of the Cowboys’ four captains this season, along with Dak Prescott, Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark.
Coach Brain Schottenheimer explained that the decision was player-based: “It was all player voting. And that’s what makes it such an awesome, awesome and incredible designation, that you get voted on by the players and your peers and brothers. There are a lot of other guys that got a number of votes, but those guys were clearly the four highest, and that spoke volumes to me from the numbers.”
Cowboys’ All-Pro ‘Bold Prediction’ Shows He’s Worth Historic Contract