Brandon Aubrey’s NFL career began inauspiciously when he hooked an extra point only 6:57 into his first game. It was not exactly what Cowboys fans wanted to see after the team’s former kicker set an NFL record with four missed extra points in a playoff game in January.
Aubrey, though, has kicked and made up with Cowboys fans and is aiming for a different kind of NFL record.
The rookie kicker hasn’t missed since his first PAT try, with his 18 field goals the most without missing to start a career. Browns kicker Travis Coons also made 18 consecutive field goals in his first season in 2015.
“Yeah, not something I’ve thought a lot about, just trying to go out there and do my job,” Aubrey said, via Garrett Podell of CBS Sports. “I’ve done it so far, and I hope to keep doing it in the future. I just want to go out there and make my kicks, so I’m not really concerned with much other than doing that.”
Aubrey isn’t the typical NFL rookie.
He did not play college football, instead spending his time as a defender on the soccer team at Notre Dame. He totaled 15 goals in 76 games. Toronto FC selected Aubrey in the first round in 2017.
In 2022, with his soccer career behind him, Aubrey began transitioning to football. He became the USFL’s top kicker for the Birmingham Stallions, who won the league championship in 2023, by making 14 of 15 field goals and 35 PATs.
“I feel like I didn’t come in as a rookie,” Aubrey said. “I feel more like a sophomore having played in the USFL for a couple years, but I know it’s not exactly the same [as the NFL]. As a kicker, it kind of is the same. You just have your operation to deal with [the snap, hold and kick], but I didn’t really feel the same way as when I was coming to my rookie year in the MLS. I’m more mature. I knew what to expect. I’m ready for what it meant to be a professional athlete, which I can’t say was true of my MLS rookie year.”
Aubrey has steadied the position for the Cowboys, who went through Brett Maher, Kai Forbath and Greg Zuerlein since Pro Bowler Dan Bailey became the all-time franchise leader in made field goals (186).