Brandon Aubrey has had quite a storybook run.
The Cowboys kicker’s journey to the NFL was in and of itself an unlikely tale, the college soccer star who found himself washed out of the sport and working as a software engineer when his wife suggested he try kicking footballs instead.
That led to back-to-back USFL championships, and that led to a spot in camp with the Cowboys in 2023. All Aubrey did with that opportunity was lead the NFL in scoring, nail 14 out of 14 field goals from 40 yards or longer, set a new league record for most consecutive field goals to start a career, and earn both a Pro Bowl trip and All-Pro honors as a rookie.
In his second-year follow-up, Aubrey connected on more field goals in a single season than any kicker in Cowboys history. Of the 39 successful regular-season field goals ever kicked from 60 yards or beyond, the 29-year-old Aubrey has three of them (only Brett Maher has more, with four). He’ll make a Pro Bowl return in February, and earned his second straight All-Pro nod. He’s a bona fide weapon who seems destined to break the once-unimaginable 70-yard-field-goal barrier.
And at some point, probably in late-September to mid-October of the 2025 season- unless something goes catastrophically wrong- Aubrey will trot out onto the field, effortlessly swing his howitzer of a right leg, and walk back to the sideline suddenly in the conversation for a new title:
The most accurate kicker in NFL history.
Right now, that honor belongs to the Ravens’ Justin Tucker, who’s converted 417 of 468 of his career field goal attempts over a 13-year career. That’s 89.103%.
Aubrey’s percentage is already technically a hair higher than Tucker’s: 89.412%. But kickers aren’t included in the all-time rankings until they’ve logged 100 regular-season field goal attempts.
Aubrey has 85; only when he tries his 100th three-pointer will he automatically join the big leaderboard. It should happen fairly early. Aubrey’s 15th field goal attempt of 2024 came in Week 5. The previous year, it came in Week 6.
And when 100 does happen, the rest of the very best in the business will suddenly have company. But the reality is, there will already be a new leader of the pack by then.
The Chargers’ Cameron Dicker has 97 regular-season field goal tries in his career, and he’s sitting on a make percentage of 93.814.% Even if Dicker misses his next three kick attempts, he’ll still have a 91.000% rate when he hits 100 kicks, more than enough to comfortably dethrone Tucker as the accuracy king.
If Aubrey makes his next 15 in a row (which is certainly possible for him), he’ll also have 91.000% when he reaches 100 and joins the list.
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Kicking field goals has become a young man’s domain. Of the NFL’s all-time field goal percentage leaders, the top five are all active players. Eight of the top 15. Sixteen of the top 30.
Of course, young kickers have a smaller sample size. The excellent ones naturally go right to the top of the accuracy chart once eligible. That’s just how math works.
It’s not until the most accurate kickers start to age- and miss more frequently- that they slide down the historical rankings. There’s no shame in it; circle of life and all that. Adam Vinatieri, unquestionably one of the greatest to ever do it, is a surprising 35th on the all-time accuracy list. Sebastian Janikowski, so dominant he was a first-round draft pick, is 65th. Morten Andersen- who is in the Hall of Fame– stands “just” 77th.
Of the current all-time top 30, Mike Vanderjagt (at No. 8) is the only one who kicked in the league before Y2K.
The point is, no one stays atop the accuracy list unless they walk away from the game well before their skills decline.
And the numbers are all so close, it doesn’t take much to really shuffle the leaderboard. Consider Eddy Piñeiro. The Panthers specialist is currently the third-most accurate kicker ever, per the numbers. If he were to miss his next kick, however, he would drop to No. 6. Just two off-target boots from Atlanta’s Younghoe Koo would drop him from 13th overall to outside the top 20. Still impressive, sure, but this is a rankings list that can see a lot of week-to-week shakeup with a shank here or a doink there.
Aubrey has been dangerously accurate But his real superpower, of course, has proven to be kicking from distance. (Just look at his Week 17 miss in Philadelphia, a 61-yard bomb that hit the goalpost halfway up the upright and, a couple inches to the left, would have been good from much, much longer.)
The Cowboys (and most fans) would probably cut Aubrey a little leeway in the accuracy department and look past a random miss from 45 here or there because they know he’ll end up stealing an improbable win someday with a sniper shot from 70.
Even at this stage in his young NFL career, Aubrey is among the sport’s elite whether you’re talking about distance or accuracy. It’s just a matter of time, though, before he comes for the crown in both categories.
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