As of 8:37 am on Thursday August 17, 2023, Brandon Aubrey is the only kicker on the Dallas Cowboys roster.
The team wrapped up training camp in Oxnard with a final padded practice on Wednesday before packing up to head to Seattle for their second preseason game.
Two “fights” highlighted the final day, likely born out of frustration and impatience.
Speaking of frustration and impatience, those two words are probably the best way to describe how we in Cowboys Nation have felt about the kicker position so far.
Not only thus far in training camp, but there has actually been a level of uncertainty about the kicking game for years.
We may be uncertain about what kind of performance we will see from Aubrey, but we need to be patient.
There is one main reason why I believe we are placing some unfair and unrealistic expectations on this young man.
Dan Bailey
You know that old saying “you never know what you have until it's gone”?
That definitely applies to this situation in regards to the fact that we were absolutely and unequivocally spoiled by Dan Bailey.
Bailey joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State University in training camp prior to the 2011 season.
Bailey and the incumbent David Buehler battled in training camp for the right to kick for Dallas that year.
The Cowboys actually elected to keep both kickers on the opening day roster, with Bailey handling field goals, and Buehler as a kickoff specialist.
Through the first eight games, Bailey converted 21 of 22 field goals, including hitting all six attempts in a two point win over rival Washington.
Buehler was placed on injured reserve, and the rest is history.
Bailey went on to be not only one of the most accurate kickers in team history, but in NFL history, as well.
His performance earned him the nickname Mr. Automatic, and for the most part, he was.
Bailey's final season in Dallas was 2017, a season in which injuries limited his usual effectiveness.
He finished his Cowboys career with an 88.2% field goal percentage.
Excluding the 2017 season in which he was not himself with only 75% accuracy, his career numbers with Dallas jump up to 89.6%.
Bailey never missed an extra point until that ill-fated 2017 season, hitting his first 250 attempts.
Mr. Automatic set the expectations so high that anyone that has kicked for Dallas in the past five years is already behind the ball.
We cannot do that to Brandon Aubrey.
He, like most kickers, needs confidence to perform.
Aubrey needs a little more confidence than most, and that's for one main reason.
He Just Started Kicking A Year Ago
If you don't follow the team closely, learning that Aubrey just started kicking a football professionally 16 months ago will likely shock you.
Aubrey last played football in middle school before dedicating his youth to his favorite sport, soccer.
He was so good at soccer that he was awarded a scholarship to Notre Dame University where he earned several accolades.
Aubrey was a first round selection in the MLS Draft by Toronto FC, but his soccer career lasted only two years.
With little hope of being picked up by a professional soccer team again, Aubrey was encouraged by his girlfriend to pursue a career as a football kicker.
He hired a coach, and made the difficult transition from kicking a soccer ball to kicking a football.
In the 2022 USFL Draft, Aubrey was selected by the Birmingham Stallions, converting on 14 of 15 field goal attempts for the season.
He finished 3rd in the league in scoring, and earned himself an invite to Dallas Cowboys training camp to battle with Tristan Vizcaino for the kicking job.
Vizcaino has since been released, and reports say Aubrey has looked more confident (there's the magic word) and comfortable in camp after the Cowboys' show of good faith.
In his NFL debut, Aubrey connected on his lone field goal attempt from 29 yards out, and hit on two of three extra point attempts.
Every one of his kickoffs was a touchback, which plays a huge part in the field position battle on the gridiron.
We as fans need to face the fact that we may never again see another Dan Bailey type kicker in a Cowboys uniform.
These unrealistic expectations we have placed on Aubrey are not fair, and definitely won't help him with his confidence to develop.
Also, it's early on in the season.
We are still in preseason, and there is plenty of time to sign a proven, veteran kicker should Aubrey not continue to improve.
We all know who is out there, as their names seem to get mentioned every day.
Until that moment, let's do the young man a favor and show him the support that he needs to succeed.
