John Fassel is known as a guy who always has a plan. The Cowboys special teams coordinator has a knack for pulling out a fake punt or sending the house on a field goal attempt or dialing up a gadget return at just the right moment on game day. Off the field, he keeps a mental file full of names: of kickers, of punters, of long snappers, of gunners, of the fast kamikaze types who maybe he saw play once and just might excel on his unit and could be called when there’s a need for their very particular set of skills.
But when it came to getting USFL kicker Brandon Aubrey and making him the Cowboys starter in 2023, it all came together very quickly. And it even involved a secret reconnaissance mission just weeks before training camp.
“I didn’t study him as much in 2022,” Fassel told reporters this week about Aubrey’s first season kicking for the Birmingham Stallions. No surprise there. After all, Aubrey was an ex-college soccer star who had just started booting oblong balls for the first time after an MLS career never panned out.
Besides, Brett Maher had the job on lock in Dallas in 2022, connecting on his field goals at a 90.6% clip and banging 50 of 53 extra points through the uprights… in the regular season.
The postseason, however, became another (infamous) story.
“Then once this spring and the summer was happening,” Fassel continued, “we went and looked at ’22.”
What he saw was that Aubrey led the spring league in both field-goal and PAT percentage and had been named to the All-USFL team in a championship season. And he was leading the league in both categories again with the 2023 season winding down.
At the time, the only kicker the Cowboys had on the roster was Tristan Vizcaino. Outside observers were clamoring for the club to sign a veteran free agent; Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby, and Ryan Succop were all on the open market. Brandon McManus had just been released by Denver and then signed by Jacksonville after the Cowboys didn’t bite. The Jaguars had even tried to send Riley Patterson to Dallas in a trade, to no avail.
The Cowboys, oddly, didn’t seem to have a plan. What Fassel did have, though, was a ticket to watch the Stallions play in the middle of June.
“It was a little bit of a stealth operation that [Cowboys vice president of player personnel] Will McClay and everybody kind of set up,” Fassel confessed. “I got out there in pre-game warm-ups, and I might have snuck down onto the field and just got a closer feel for the sound of it and the look of it. Nobody knew we were coming.”
Fassel liked what he saw enough for the Cowboys to sign Aubrey on July 6, just five days after the Stallions won their second consecutive USFL title.
“The goal for our whole organization was to find, hopefully, a longer-term answer,” Fassel said.
A month and a day later, Vizcaino was released after struggling in camp. By Sept. 7, just days before the season opener, it was clear the Cowboys would roll into the regular season with the 28-year-old rookie. Head coach Mike McCarthy even said that Aubrey reminded him of “a young Mason Crosby.”
All Aubrey has done since then is start his NFL career perfect on his first seven field goal tries, something no Cowboys kicker in history had done before.
“It’s two games,” Fassel warned. “If he was 4-for-7 instead of 7-for-7, I still say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a young kicker that’s got some talent, some ability, and we’ve got to keep tightening some things up.'”
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Aubrey hasn’t been perfect; he missed his first extra point try in Week 1. Badly. And though the moment caused painful flashbacks for Cowboys fans, the special teams guru was quick to put the blame on a timing issue, not kicking mechanics.
Because Fassel loves the way Aubrey strikes the ball. So much so, in fact, that the longtime football coach largely leaves the onetime futbol prodigy alone when it’s time to do his job.
“I think it’s just the swing. Remember when I had [current Jet/former Rams and Cowboys kicker Greg] Zuerlein?” Fassel asked. “Zuerlein was a heck of a high school soccer player, like probably most kickers are. But Brandon’s soccer background is way more significant than anybody I’ve been a part of. [Raiders great Sebastian] Janikowski, I always go back to him; he was a big-time soccer player before he went to college. There’s something about those guys that have powerful soccer legs that can translate to the NFL as long as- and I say this carefully- but as long as you don’t overcoach them. I know my job is to coach them, but I also know my job is not to overcoach them.”
This past week, Aubrey hit all five field goal attempts versus the Jets, including one from 55 yards. That’s among the five longest field goals leaguewide so far this young season. And Aubrey currently leads the NFL in total points scored, field goals made, and touchbacks.
It’s all a very promising sign that Fassel’s latest plan is going to work.
“The more reps he gets at it, I think the better he’s going to get.”
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