Again in Might, Dallas particular groups coach John Fassel mentioned the workforce would contemplate “everybody on earth” for his or her kicking job, and after going by all of the functions, it appears that evidently the Cowboys have lastly discovered their man.
Tthe workforce has agreed to a contract with former USFL standout Brandon Aubrey, who has by no means kicked in an NFL sport earlier than. As an alternative of going with somebody who has NFL expertise — like Mason Crosby or Robbie Gould — the Cowboys have determined to go an unconventional route with their newest signing by including a participant who spent most of his life taking part in soccer earlier than switching over to soccer in 2022.
Aubrey spent two seasons within the USFL, however earlier than that, he was a soccer participant. From 2013 via 2016, Aubrey was at Notre Dame, the place he performed soccer for the Preventing Irish. After leaving faculty, Aubrey was drafted, however not within the NFL. In 2017, Toronto FC made Aubrey the twenty first general decide within the MLS SuperDraft.
After solely lasting one season in Toronto, Aubrey spent a while making an attempt to maintain his soccer profession alive, however finally, he determined to surrender so he might attempt a unique sport. In 2022, his skilled soccer profession formally got here to a begin when the Birmingham Stallions chosen him with the 260th general decide within the USFL Draft.
Throughout his two seasons in Birmingham, Aubrey was among the finest kickers within the USFL whereas successful two titles with the Stallions. The 28-year-old had a virtually good 2023 season, going 14 of 15 on area objectives and an ideal 35 of 35 on further factors, which was seemingly engaging to a Cowboys workforce that skilled a kicking nightmare within the playoffs final season when Brett Maher hit simply one in all six further factors in two video games.
The Stallions launched Aubrey from his contract on July 3, which set the stage for his signing Thursday.
Aubrey will now compete with Tristan Vizcaino for the Cowboys kicking job. Vizcaino has kicked in a complete of 10 NFL video games over the previous three seasons, and through that span, he is hit 91.7% of his area objectives. Will probably be fascinating to see how the competitors performs out, particularly since Aubrey is such an unknown amount.
The 2 largest questions surrounding Aubrey heading into coaching camp are: Can he deal with the strain that comes with the NFL? And may he deal with kicking from lengthy distance?
Though he went 14 of 15 this season within the USFL, his longest kick was from 49 yards (his solely miss got here from past 50). If Aubrey proves he could make lengthy kicks and proves he can deal with the strain of kicking within the NFL, then he’ll have a very good shot of creating the Cowboys roster.