Who would play kicker was one of the Dallas Cowboys’ biggest worries going into training camp a year ago; today, it is one of the team’s…

OXNARD, Calif. — One of the Dallas Cowboys’ major concerns heading into training camp a year ago was who would play kicker; today, it is one of the team’s strongest positions.

Former Major League Soccer player Brandon Aubrey started as a kicker in the USFL before defeating Tristan Vizcaino in a training camp brawl and was named to the first team of the All-Pro team in his rookie campaign.

Last season, Aubrey made 36 field goals, more than any other kicker. From fifty yards and beyond, nobody was superior (10-for-10). And all of this while setting a new NFL record of 35 for the most consecutive field goals made to begin a career.

How does he plan on topping his first season?

“I don’t know if I’m going to even worry about what I did last year,” he said earlier this month. “I’m 0 for 0 this year. Go out there and try to make one kick at a time and just keep that same mentality that I need to earn my job each and every week.”

In the first half of Dallas’ preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Aubrey drilled a 66-yard field goal that appeared to be good from more than 70 yards, and if it had happened in a regular-season game, it would have tied the NFL record, which was set by Baltimore’s Justin Tucker in 2021. Despite the pressure of an elite encore performance, Aubrey does not seem to be bothered by it. He said there is a lot less stress compared to a year ago when he was fighting for a job.

“You can just feel it off your foot,” Aubrey said. “It feels like nothing is there, you have no resistance. It pops off your foot. It stays on your foot for like a half a second and then it just flies. You know as soon as you hit it that you hit it well.”

Given the skillfulness of that kick, it begs the obvious question: What is his longest-ever field goal?

Although Aubrey claims they seldom drill those kinds of lengths, he has made a 70-yard field goal by experimenting on his own.

Similar to the Cowboys’ home stadium, AT&T Stadium, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is an indoor location that offered ideal circumstances for a kick like that.

“Kicking in pregame, I noticed the ball was flying a lot better than (at training camp),” Aubrey said. “Oxnard is a tough place to kick. L.A. is the same, so coming out here, there’s no wind. It’s perfect conditions. Nice grass field with a little bit of elevation being in Vegas. It’s a good place to play.”

As the ball passed through the uprights, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy was as happy as you will ever see him at halftime, thumping his fist and grinning broadly.

“It’s a great weapon to have when you just gotta get to the 50,” McCarthy said after the game.

McCarthy is an NFL head coach with 17 years of experience. He claims that at the time, he and Mason Crosby, the kicker for the Green Bay Packers, shared a comparable degree of confidence.

“But Brandon, he’s at a different level with his distance,” McCarthy said. “I just go back to his first day here at camp. I had a chance to stand behind him and see the ball come off his foot. It’s like anything in our game, we work together every day, so I get to see the consistency that he kicks with. His ball placement, his length is outstanding.”

The ideal environment for kickers is usually indoors, where weather is unimportant. AT&T Stadium features retractable roof and doors, but they were never open during a game the previous season; with a weapon like Aubrey, do not be surprised if they stay closed the entire 2024 season.

“We have a system,” McCarthy said of determining where they’ll try Aubrey from in games. “Particularly when you play outside, we have marks, different lines and so forth. And just with my history up north, that can change eight to nine yards per direction. So yeah, that’s really what that whole pre-game process is for.”

Aubrey declared that he was having the best week of his life following the game on Saturday. After Dallas’ opening preseason game on August 11, he hurriedly left SoFi Stadium to catch a flight home in time for his son Colton’s birth.

Aubrey confessed that some recently acquired parental strength might have contributed to the farthest field goal of his career.

This season, the Cowboys ought to kick with the edge in almost every game. Considering what he is demonstrated during the past 365 days, Aubrey’s leg might make the difference between Dallas winning an additional game or two—possibly even more.

“You want to go out there and perform and give your team a better chance of winning,” he said. “Knowing that I can do that, it means a lot for me, and hopefully it means a lot for the guys in the locker room as well.”

(Photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)