{"id":808437,"date":"2026-07-18T15:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808437\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T15:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T15:22:15","slug":"cowboys-aubrey-nfl-kickers-sound-off-on-potential-rule-change-to-adopt-ufls-4-point-field-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808437\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys’ Aubrey, NFL Kickers Sound Off on Potential Rule Change to Adopt UFL’s 4-Point Field Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

NFL kickers speaking with ESPN’s Michael DiRocco<\/a> have mixed opinions on whether the league should adopt the UFL’s four-point field goal rule.<\/p>\n

The UFL began rewarding field goals made from more than 60 yards out with an additional point<\/a> ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

That change led to UFL kickers going from attempting zero<\/a> 60-yard field goals in 2025 to making eight successful 60-yard kicks last season.<\/p>\n

The NFL saw a simultaneous uptick in long-range attempts despite the lack of extra reward last season. <\/p>\n

After making four field goals 60 yards or longer in 2024, NFL kickers hit a record 12 goals from 60 yards out last season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Detroit Lions’ Jake Bates and Washington Commanders’ Jake Moody each told DiRocco they would be in support of the NFL rewarding those scores with an extra point.<\/p>\n

“I know it’s cool for the UFL guys to get that because it makes it worth sending them out there for, and I think a lot of guys showed they can make it so it’s cool to watch,” Bates told DiRocco.<\/p>\n

Moody told DiRocco, “I think that’d be kind of cool. Why not? It’s like basketball, they got the 3-pointer.”<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey, who hit three kicks from farther than 60 yards last season, and Jacksonville Jaguars’ Cam Little, who set an NFL record<\/a> with a 68-yarder, expressed more uncertainty when speaking with DiRocco a potential rule change.<\/p>\n

Aubrey told DiRocco he thinks the rule change would be positive for kickers but a “nightmare for the playcallers” by rewarding teams that end the drive in their own half.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s a little weird,” Aubrey told DiRocco. “Kind of incentivizes you to stall the drive in a certain spot. It makes you really, really question your playcalling around that 50-yard line area.”<\/p>\n

Little told DiRocco, “There’s been so many rule changes between the kickoff. I just think if we could keep some tradition to the game, I think that’s what makes the NFL really cool because we’ve kept a lot of the rules.”<\/p>\n

NFL owners are not currently officially considering implementing a four-point field goal, but the UFL and its predecessors the XFL and USFL have previously served as a testing ground<\/a> for rules that eventually make it to the to the NFL.<\/p>\n

The NFL similarly inspires rule changes in the UFL. League co-owner Mike Repole said he came up with the idea to reward long-range field goals with an extra point after watching Aubrey make a game-tying field goal from 64 yards out in Week 2 of the 2025 season, per The UFL.com’s Ethan Berch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There has been an uptick in long-range field goals in the NFL over the last two years in part thanks to teams’ new ability to practice with and break in kicking balls before games, according to the AP’s Josh Dubow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s just one of multiple rule changes that has recently impacted kickers. The NFL has been tweaking kickoff rules<\/a> for the last few seasons with adjustments that led to an increase in kickoff returns<\/a> from 32.8 percent in 2024 to 74.5 percent in 2025.<\/p>\n

NFL owners once more approved<\/a> a rule adjustment ahead of the 2026 season to allow teams to declare an onside kick at any point in the game.<\/p>\n

Whether NFL kickers have to adjust to new field-goal rules in addition to new kickoff rules could depend on whether any team owners decide to bring up the four-point field goal for a vote in a future offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL kickers speaking with ESPN’s Michael DiRocco have mixed opinions on whether the league should adopt the UFL’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-808437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}