How ‘Butter’ Brandon Aubrey continues to impress Cowboys: ‘There’s just so much there’

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John Fassel insists that he wasn’t nervous. It was June, the Dallas Cowboys were closing in on the start of training camp, and the franchise’s special teams coach was still looking for a player who could potentially be their kicker for the upcoming season.

Little did he know at the time, he was about to scout someone who has become one of the team’s most valuable players.

“Sometimes being patient is the answer,” Fassel said.

Brandon Aubrey continued to exceed expectations in Sunday night’s 33-13 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, making field goals from 60, 58, 50 and 45 yards. He has now made all 30 of his field goal attempts this season, an NFL record to start a career.

The 28-year-old said after the game that he could make a 70-yarder, if needed. Fassel said he wouldn’t have been nervous if Aubrey attempted a field goal from that distance.

“He has an incredibly natural swing,” Fassel said. “It feels like it hasn’t been messed with too much. He’s a soccer player and it’s kind of like a soccer swing. He’s just free swinging, and it’s a cool look.

“From a mental standpoint, he’s the same guy almost every day. I haven’t ever felt him stressful in a big moment. He has a lot of great attributes to potentially be a great kicker.”

The Cowboys were interested in a couple of kickers in this year’s draft but both were selected before Dallas was willing to use one of its picks. So, Fassel worked on scouting roughly a hundred players, mostly from the XFL and USFL. Tristan Vizcaino was on the roster, but it seemed unlikely that they would go into camp with just him at the position.

On the outside, many speculated about veteran free agents like Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby and Ryan Succop. Fassel was determined to find a younger option.

While going through some USFL tape, he came across Aubrey. He wasn’t your typical NFL kicking prospect. He went to Notre Dame but didn’t play football. While Aubrey played professional soccer in the MLS, he realized after a couple seasons that it probably wasn’t for him.

He then spent two years as a software engineer. During that time, he was watching a football game with his wife when a kicker missed. She told Aubrey that he could’ve made the kick. He agreed and the seed was planted. The Plano, Texas, product looked for a local kicking coach and came across Brian Egan, a former college teammate of Cowboys QB Dak Prescott. Aubrey’s hard work eventually led to him getting a shot in the USFL, where he won two championships and earned All-USFL honors. And all of that opened the door for him to play in the NFL for his favorite team.

“Obviously, this is my wildest dreams and they’ve come true,” Aubrey said. “And I’m just trying to keep going.”

Fassel said a significant factor in noticing Aubrey was how effortlessly his USFL kickoffs from the 20-yard line would reach the opposite goal line.

“His swing was the same,” Fassel said. “I was like, ‘He’s banging the ball and he’s not even trying.’ He just kind of stood out more than other guys. And here we are. It happened fast.”

Aubrey leads the NFL with 84 touchbacks on his 89 kickoffs. The NFL single-season record is 88, set by Bradley Pinion in 2019. Aubrey, whose 94.4 touchback percentage is second in the league, won NFC Special Teams Player of the Month in October.

The Cowboys’ record for most 50-yard field goals in a season was set last year by Brett Maher with nine. Aubrey has eight with four games remaining. Dallas moved on from Maher largely because of his performance in last season’s playoffs, when he missed four extra-point attempts in a wild-card win at Tampa Bay.

There was a deja vu moment for the Cowboys when Aubrey missed his first extra-point try in the season opener at the New York Giants. However, he has only missed two more since, putting him at 39 of 42 on the season.

“Just going out there and doing it one at a time,” he said. “Just taking it one kick at a time and know I can make any of the kicks they’ve asked me to do. To go out there and make it is just something I expect myself to do at this point.”

Aubrey has been so good that Prescott has given him the nickname, “Butter.”

“It’s just because he’s smooth, super smooth, and makes them all,” Prescott said. “He makes it as easy as butter.”

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy vividly remembers the first time he stood behind Aubrey while he was kicking in training camp. The foot speed immediately jumped out. Of course, he didn’t know at the time that Aubrey would go on to be as successful as he’s been, but there were enough positive signs that the Cowboys moved on from Vizcaino in early August, leaving Aubrey as the only kicker on the roster.

McCarthy gives a lot of credit to Fassel for the way he has managed not only Aubrey but the operation of the kicking trio, which includes punter/holder Bryan Anger and long snapper Trent Sieg.

“The consistency in everything you do, I think is a part of his efficiency,” McCarthy said. “You go out there and as you watch him in his prep, his swing, and the tempo into the kick, it’s super consistent. I purposely earlier in the season gave him kicks that he may have thought he wasn’t going to get because you have to do that. I learned that with Mason Crosby back in my early tenure as a head coach. The opening game (in 2007) he hit the game-winner as a rookie. It’s important to take those opportunities.

“We did that early in the season. Now, in a big game like (Sunday) night, I think that’s another huge step for him to go out there and swing and he’s in an unprecedented groove. But there’s just so much there. And just been so impressed with everything that he’s done.”

(Photo of Brandon Aubrey: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)

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