The Dallas Cowboys have a kicking problem. They’ve had it for the last two seasons, but finally, after seeing Brett Maher miss two kicks that would have changed the context of their embarrassing Thanksgiving loss, they are looking to do something about it.
On Sunday, while the rest of the league played their Week 13 games, Dallas worked out three kickers.
Brett Maher missed 2 FGs in loss to Bills. He's 19-of-28 this season. So today Cowboys are working out
🏈 Nick Rose, ex-Longhorn with 10 games NFL experience
🏈 Austin MacGinnis, from XFL's Dallas Renegades roster
🏈 Tristan Vizcaino, ex-Washington K
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 1, 2019
Maher has under a 68% make percentage on the season after Sunday’s two misses. If he had made both kicks, Dallas’ late touchdown with four minutes remaining would have moved them within one score, allowing the team to kick the ball downfield instead of going for an onside kick.
Cowboys Wire ran an article on Friday looking at a handful of kickers with NFL experience, plus Sergio Castillo, who can work out for teams but can’t sign until after the season per CFL rules.
In the end though, Dallas decided to move forward with Maher for Thursday’s road game against the Chicago Bears.
At this time, it appears as if the Cowboys are not going to sign any of the kickers who worked out Sunday, but Brett Maher was not paying attention to the potential roster switch. “Focus on what I can do to make my next kick,” Maher said. He has missed… https://t.co/FO4m3TAr73
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) December 1, 2019
The workouts, of course, focused on place kicks, which means the rest of the unit had to participate as long-time long snapper L.P. Ladouceur and punter-holder Chris Jones worked with the workout warriors.
Ladouceur spoke up about the issues he felt arose from having to work with potential replacements for his friend, Maher.
LP Ladouceur on working with tryout kickers: It sucks, it puts me and Chris (Jones) in kinda a bad spot. Brett is our guy. He's been our friend for the past two years and we played games with him and all of a sudden, I'm supposed to work with these guys and tell Brett I'm sorry?
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) December 1, 2019
The Cowboys (6-6) are still atop the NFC East for the time being, as they hold the tiebreaker over the Philadelphia Eagles (5-6) by virtue of their big win earlier in the season. The two teams meet again in Week 16.
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