You could argue that no single Dallas Cowboys player has been better at their job the last three years than Brandon Aubrey. Given that, it may seem surprising that he finds himself in a prolonged contract negotiation this offseason. But based on a few factors, it makes sense for Dallas to play hardball with their All-Pro kicker.
Aubrey has been a front office’s dream since joining as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He was a First-Team All-Pro that year, made Second-Team the last two years, and has naturally
been to the Pro Bowl each of those seasons as well. He’s played in every game during that stretch and attempted the most field goals and extra points of any NFL kicker since his arrival, exemplifying the value of availability.
If you proclaimed that Aubrey is the greatest kicker in franchise history, you’d have a solid case. He’s tied with Dan Bailey for the highest career FG percentage (88.2%) for kickers who played at least one full season in Dallas. He broke the record for longest FG in Cowboys history with his 65-yarder in 2024, and he’s already smashed the record for the most makes from 50 yards or greater. He’s still third behind Bailey and Rafael Septien for the most total field goals made during their Cowboys tenures, but that’s just a matter of time.
Given his current all-time résumé, Aubrey would seem like a slam dunk as an internal free agent. After all, even the highest-paid kicker in the NFL only gets $6.5 million a year. Compared against a $301.2 million salary cap in 2026, that’s chump change: barely over 2% of the total cap. And in a multi-year deal, the actual cap hit would be even lower. Considering Dallas is about to pay T.J. Bass $5.8 million just to play backup guard, it may be hard to understand why they’d pinch pennies over Aubrey’s money.
Nevertheless, like Bass, Aubrey is currently set to make that same amount on the second-round restricted free agent tender. We’ve heard the two-way chatter and rumors: Aubrey wants to be a Cowboy, but also wants to be the league’s highest-paid kicker. Dallas also wants Aubrey and has offered him a contract that would supposedly satisfy that goal. But one report had Aubrey wanting close to $10 million per year in his new deal, which would shatter the current pay scale for kickers. How much truth there is in all that is unknown.
We also don’t know for sure what’s hung things up. Is it the total compensation? Guaranteed money? The number of years? Any and all could be true, and perhaps they’re much closer to a deal coming together than the current silence allows us to know. But one thing we do know is that the Cowboys have some very good reasons to not bend over backwards for Aubrey, regardless of how good he’s been.
While he’s only been in the NFL for three years, Aubrey just turned 31 in March. The 30s are a precarious stage in any athlete’s career, and have been a breaking point for many kickers. Even Dan Bailey started falling apart in his late 20s, and was 31 when he had his one last gasp of NFL greatness with the Vikings. He was out of the league by the time he was 33. Even Justin Tucker, arguably the best modern-era kicker, was declining in his early 30s. He’s out of the league now for multiple reasons, but his 73% accuracy in 2024 is definitely one of them.
Aubrey’s NFL mileage may be much lower than most 31-year-old kickers, but he was a professional soccer player from 2017-2018 and then played two American football seasons in the USFL before joining the Cowboys. So there’s still plenty of risk of physical decline beyond just age. Most don’t make it as long as Adam Vinatieri or Morten Andersen, who both played into their late 40s, and even they had some rough patches along the way.
And frankly, despite Aubrey receiving his usual accolades for the season, it’s not like we didn’t see causes for long-term concern. After an amazing 95% on field goals in his first year, Aubrey’s accuracy dipped to 85-86% in each of the last two seasons. After going 24-of-27 on long-distance FGs from 2023-2024, last year he was just 11-of-17 from 50 yards or more.
Given how he’s performed overall these first three years, Aubrey is certainly within his rights to ask for top money. But given these mitigating factors, the Cowboys are equally entitled to not acquiesce. They can’t be sure that Aubrey maintains his most recent performance level. That would be true even at 24 or 25 years old, but the risk is so much higher at age 31. As good as he’s been, history tells us that he could go off a cliff at any point.
One of the cold, hard facts in this negotiation is that Dallas has virtually all of the leverage. With only three NFL seasons under his belt, Aubrey was eligible for restricted free agency. With the second-round tender, the Cowboys basically locked him in for 2026 barring a holdout. Nobody’s giving up a second-round pick for a 31-year-old kicker, no matter how buttery his game is. The leverage even continues into next year, when the Cowboys could consider using the franchise tag to secure Aubrey on another one-year deal. The 2026 tag for special teamers was $6.65 million, so that same range would only be a small raise from what the RFA tender is paying him now.
This two-year plan may not be great for Aubrey’s long-term security, but it certainly makes sense for the Cowboys. It gives them easy, painless outs after each of the next two seasons, depending on Aubrey’s performance. No dead money from the guarantees on a long-term deal, and a chance to kick this can down the road for two years and see where Aubrey’s at at age 33. It does cost you a little more against the 2026 and 2027 caps than a multi-year deal would, but that’s a small price to pay for the flexibility.
Taken together, all of this adds up to Aubrey not really being the right guy to change the financial landscape of the kicker position. A multi-year deal that makes him the highest-paid guy, but still below $7 million a year, is equitable given the big picture. That Dallas would offer him that kind of deal, given what they’d be sacrificing in terms of their own options over the next two seasons, is not a small thing. Aubrey’s side has to take that into account when deciding what’s fair here.
Again, maybe the two sides aren’t that far apart at this point. And with the RFA tender all but ensuring Aubrey’s presence in 2026, there’s no rush to get this done with months to go before training camp. But if things have stalled, then it really is Aubrey’s camp that needs to get honest with themselves. As good as he’s been so far, there’s just too much risk and too little leverage for them to expect the Cowboys to budge.
