Brandon Aubrey and the Dallas Cowboys agreed on a four-year, $28 million extension on Monday April 20, making him the highest-paid kicker in NFL history and the first at the position to earn $7 million per year.
The deal includes $20 million guaranteed, a record for that as well. He is locked in through the 2029 season. The contract was negotiated by agents Todd France and AJ Stevens of Athletes First.
Aubrey is 31 years old and has been in the NFL for three seasons. Before that he played soccer.
How Aubrey’s Career Began On A Couch
In 2019, Brandon Aubrey was sitting on a couch with his wife watching an NFL game when a kicker missed a field goal. His wife turned to him and suggested he could do that.
He had spent years playing professional soccer after starring at Notre Dame and being taken as a first-round pick by Toronto FC in the 2017 MLS Draft.
He had been released by a second-division USL club. At that point he was working as a software engineer in Arlington, Texas, the same city where the Cowboys play their home games at AT&T Stadium.
He had never kicked a football competitively in his life.
He decided to try anyway. He spent two seasons with the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL, led the league in scoring, and won two USFL championships.
The Cowboys signed him before training camp in 2023. His NFL career began at age 28.
How Successful Has Aubrey Really Been?
His 2023 rookie season was one of the most statistically dominant starts to a kicking career in NFL history. He made his first 35 field goal attempts without a miss, the most ever to begin a career.
He led the entire NFL in scoring. He was named first-team All-Pro. He made the Pro Bowl.
Aubrey did it again in 2024 and again in 2025, becoming the first kicker in league history to earn a Pro Bowl selection in each of his first three seasons.
The records have accumulated at a pace that feels implausible for a position that rarely produces this kind of conversation.
He has made six career field goals of at least 60 yards, an NFL record. The Dallas special teams man was the first kicker to convert three field goals of 55 yards or more in a single game.
The Notre Dame alumni was the first with three of at least 60 in a single season.
He was the first with three from 60-plus yards in his entire career. He set the Cowboys’ franchise record with a 65-yarder against Cleveland in 2024, a kick that would be the longest in league history were it not for Jacksonville kicker Cam Little’s 68-yarder last season.
For his career, Aubrey has made 112 of 127 field goal attempts, an 88.2 percent conversion rate that ranks him among the five most accurate kickers in league history.
He has also made 126 of 130 extra points. Last season he connected on 11 of 17 attempts from 50 yards or beyond, a distance at which most kickers become significantly less reliable.
What The Deal Means
The previous record belonged to Houston Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, who signed a deal earlier this offseason with an average annual value of $6.5 million.
Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs was immediately behind at $6.4 million, and held the previous record for guaranteed money at $17.75 million.
Aubrey’s $20 million in guarantees surpasses both numbers and his $7 million annual average creates a new ceiling for the position.
The deal represents something broader than a contract for a kicker. Aubrey has redefined what the position looks like in the NFL.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who took over as Dallas’s head coach this offseason, has repeatedly called Aubrey a “weapon,” not a specialist, not a role player, but a weapon.
The framing reflects how the Cowboys use him: as a scoring option that changes how opponents have to think about field position once Dallas crosses midfield.
A signing bonus of $8.25 million accompanies the contract, and the deal was brokered by Todd France and AJ Stevens of Athletes First, the same Todd France who represents Dak Prescott, who signed a $60 million per year extension with Dallas in 2024.
France now has the highest-paid quarterback and the highest-paid kicker in the same building.
The Negotiation And What Jerry Jones Said
The contract standoff generated more attention than most kicker negotiations do, which itself says something about how valuable Aubrey has become.
Cowboys COO Stephen Jones described the process as “a journey” at the NFL Combine in February.
The Cowboys had placed a $5.7 million second-round restricted free agent tender on Aubrey last month while the two sides continued talking, a move that kept him from testing the open market while a long-term deal came together.
From the beginning, Aubrey said he absolutely wanted to stay with Dallas. The Cowboys made clear they wanted to keep him.
Jerry Jones said at the Combine:
“I think he’s outstanding. Love his story, love the fact that the story is with the Cowboys. We feel good that what we are talking about is an appreciation of what he can do for us.”
Schottenheimer added that Aubrey did not want to go anywhere, calling it a sign of the culture the franchise was building.
Where The Cowboys Go From Here?
With Aubrey signed, Dallas now turns its attention to wide receiver George Pickens, who the Cowboys placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on in February.
Pickens and the team have until July 15 to negotiate a long-term deal. Aubrey joins running back Javonte Williams, who agreed to a three-year, $24 million extension earlier this offseason, as players Dallas has locked into multi-year commitments this spring.
The Cowboys have also been active on other fronts, trading for Green Bay Packers edge rusher Rashan Gary and trading away defensive tackles Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon Thomas.
The draft begins Thursday, adding another dimension to the offseason picture.
But the Aubrey deal stands as the signature transaction of Dallas’s spring.
A kicker who did not play football until he was 28, who spent years playing professional soccer and then working in software before his wife’s suggestion changed everything, who entered the USFL as an unknown and left two years later as an NFL starter, he is now the highest-paid player at his position in league history, locked in at AT&T Stadium through 2029.
The couch moment cost someone else a missed field goal. It made Brandon Aubrey a record-setting $28 million.
