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Other Cowboys Stars Fought for Money, Aubrey Just Wanted a Job
Brandon Aubrey became the NFL’s highest-paid kicker in his own hometown and his reaction was completely unexpected.
Not everything in Dallas ends in drama. Sometimes it just works out.
That’s the simplest way to describe what happened when the Cowboys sat down with their kicker this offseason.
Brandon Aubrey signed a record-breaking deal, went to a charity baseball event and told a reporter he’s just glad to have a job.
In a world where NFL contract news usually involves tension and hard feelings, that’s genuinely refreshing.
Growing Up and Getting Paid in Same City
Aubrey didn’t just land a payday. He landed a payday in his hometown.
He grew up in Dallas and spent a chunk of his early career grinding through the USFL with the Birmingham Stallions, a long way from where he is now.
If you’d told him back then he’d eventually become the highest-paid kicker in NFL history and do it with the Cowboys he probably wouldn’t have believed you.
He basically said as much himself.
At the Reliant Home Run Derby, where Dallas players came out in force, The Athletic’s Jon Machota caught up with Aubrey and got him talking about the new deal. The kicker’s response was straightforward and genuine.
“I just wanted to have a job,” Aubrey told Machota. “And this locks me up for the foreseeable future and gives me that job that I wanted when I started this thing. I’m just excited to have a job and have it right here in Dallas where I grew up.”
That’s not a guy performing gratitude for the cameras.
That’s a guy who remembers what it felt like to wonder if he’d ever get a real shot in this league.
What Dallas Has Been Dealing With
To understand why this matters so much to Cowboys fans, you have to look at what’s been happening around the rest of the roster.
Contract situations in Dallas haven’t exactly been smooth lately. Micah Parsons ended up getting traded. The George Pickens situation still hasn’t found a clean resolution.
For a fanbase that loves its team but has had to watch one negotiation after another go sideways, the Aubrey deal feels like a reset button.
No drama. No holdout. No hard feelings. Just a kicker and his hometown team getting it done.
“I’m happy to have it behind me,” Aubrey said. “Happy to be able to stay here and play for a record-setting contract. It’s an awesome achievement, something that I never thought I would be able to say.”
That phrase “happy to have it behind me” carries more weight than it might seem.
It’s the kind of thing you say when something could’ve gone wrong but didn’t. When the process was stressful enough that finishing it feels like its own kind of relief.
Aubrey’s not just happy about the money. He’s happy the whole thing is over and he gets to stay where he belongs.
The Kicker Who Earned Every Penny
It’s worth pointing out that none of this would mean anything if Aubrey hadn’t actually been one of the best kickers in the league. He has been.
His first two seasons in the NFL were historically accurate from long distance and even in 2025 when he wasn’t quite as sharp from beyond 50 yards, he didn’t miss a single kick from inside that mark, the first time that’s happened in his career.
There’s also the kickoff work, which doesn’t show up in a lot of highlight packages but matters week to week.
The Cowboys aren’t paying him a record salary out of loyalty alone.
They’re paying him because he’s the NFL’s consensus top kicker and they didn’t want to find out what life looks like without him.
The Right Player and the Right Person
What makes the Aubrey situation feel different isn’t just the clean contract process. It’s the way he talks about it.
A lot of players in his position freshly signed to a massive deal would project confidence, maybe throw in a line about how they always knew they’d get here. Aubrey talks about just wanting a job.
That perspective comes from somewhere real.
It comes from playing in a spring league and wondering if the call to an NFL roster would ever come and from appreciating the path even when the path was hard.
Now that he’s on the other side of it with record contract, hometown team, deal done, he sounds like someone who’s made peace with the whole journey.
For the Cowboys and their fans, that’s exactly the kind of person you want representing your franchise at any position.
Jerry Jones and the front office got this one right, not just on the field but in the locker room too.
Dallas doesn’t always make it look easy. This time they did.
