‘Steph Curry of kickers’: Why Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey embraces Tom Brady’s comparison

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As Cowboys receiver KaVontae Turpin said after Sunday’s game, “You feel like they’re just automatic for him right now.” Aubrey feels that, too, and so do his coaches. They not only watched Aubrey hit a 66-yard field goal in a preseason game in Las Vegas, they saw him hit another one in Week 1 in Cleveland. But what would have been a record-tying kick was wiped out by a delay of game penalty.

With the ball moved back 5 yards, Cowboys special teams coach John Fassel admitted they “considered” sending Aubrey to try again — what would have been a record-shattering 71-yarder right before halftime. Aubrey was even warming up as if he was going to make the kick — a kick he would have loved to try.

“Yeah, coach puts me out there. I got nothing to lose,” Aubrey said. “Just go out there and smash the ball and if it doesn’t go in, no one expected it to go in.

“Hey, just shoot it, I guess.”

That’s the Curry-like confidence that Brady saw, though it’s still somewhat surprising coming from a kicker like Aubrey, who has only been place-kicking for five years. He played soccer at Notre Dame, was drafted into the MLS, and played two professional seasons in the United Soccer League. And after his soccer career ended in 2018, he went to work as a software engineer.

He famously didn’t even try placekicking until 2019. That’s when he was watching an NFL game on TV with his wife, Jenn, who turned to him after watching a kicker make a field goal and said: “You could do that.”

That was the turning point of what Aubrey calls his “wacky ride.” Three years of training later, he got his shot with the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL and he was an instant success. But even there, he wasn’t showing Curry-like length with his shots. Over two seasons, he converted 86.5% of his field goals (32 of 37). But his longest kick was 49 yards. He missed both of his chances from 50 yards or longer.

So even after he signed with the Cowboys in the summer of 2023, he was an unlikely candidate to challenge Baltimore‘s Justin Tucker as the best kicker in the NFL, or to do what Brady said he’s helping to do now — pushing the limits of what people think is possible for kickers to do.

“It’s interesting as you see all these long field goals being taken now in the NFL,” Brady said. “I played for a long time … The thought of a 52-yard field goal was kind of always the line of demarcation. That mental block brain barrier has kind of been broken by NFL kickers at this point.”

Added Aubrey: “(Long kicks) can hopefully push back the range coaches are comfortable calling field goals at — not just for me but for other kickers. I think, even if you go out there and you miss one, the other team gets the ball at half field, which could make the games more exciting.”

Aubrey has been doing that ever since he hit the NFL. He shattered the league record by making 35 consecutive field goals to start his career, not missing until a 32-yard attempt was blocked in the final game of the 2023 regular season in Washington. He hit the upright on a 36-yarder later in that game too, but finished his rookie year 36 of 38, including 10 for 10 from 50 or longer.

He’s 10 for 10 overall this season, too, and 5-for-5 from 50 or longer. He’s made an astonishing 95.8% of his field goals (46 of 48) in 20 NFL games, including 100% (15 of 15) from 50-plus. He made his only kick (a 34-yarder) in the Cowboys’ playoff loss last season too.

It’s the long kicks, though, that are getting him the most attention. He told FOX Sports that while some of it depends on the conditions, he’s generally comfortable and confident up to about 68 yards, which would be two yards longer than the record 66-yarder Tucker nailed in 2021. Aubrey said “70 (yards) is where I start getting pretty uncomfortable. I’d have to change some things and bring more to the table than I’m comfortable doing.

“It’s definitely possible, but the likelihood starts going down after 68, 69.”

The key to those long kicks, Aubrey said, is to keep the same process. He doesn’t alter the length of his approach or change his technique. The only concession he may make is to hit the ball a little higher, which sacrifices some of the height of his kick in exchange for extra distance.

And yes, Aubrey said, on those long kicks, “you come with a little bit more adrenaline to the ball” despite how it may appear. That’s part of his mental battle, too.

“It’s a calm look for sure, but the heart is racing,” he said. “It’s kind of battle to maintain as much control over your emotions as you possibly can. I’ve practiced 10,000 times at this point. I’ve prepared. I’ve come up with my process — my mental process. It’s just something I’ve done a million times and going out there is not going to be any different. The consequences are maybe different, but there’s no room to think about the situation or the outcome.”

That’s no different than the way Curry — arguably the best and definitely the most prolific 3-point shooter in NBA history — seems to approach his long shots, too. And that was the basis of Brady’s comparison. Aubrey seems almost matter-of-fact as he takes long shot after long shot in the NFL. He seems unfazed as he pushes the limits.

And he looks like a kicker who feels that no shot is too long, that no kick is too far for him to at least give it a try.

“For me, knowing that my range is further than they’ll ever ask me to go out and kick the ball gives me the confidence to go out there and hit these long balls,” Aubrey said. “It’s something I did struggle with in the USFL, so it can be just a mental thing.

“But once you understand that ‘OK, yeah, that’s in my wheelhouse, I can do that’ … Every kicker needs to find that confidence.”

Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.