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Brandon Aubrey #17 of the Dallas Cowboys
Nothing is ever easy for the Dallas Cowboys when it comes to negotiating a new contract for a star player and, it turns out, that applies even if that star player is a kicker. There’s no real pressure on for the Cowboys to get a new deal with All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey, who is currently on a second-round tender contract offer ($5.8 million for one year), but the unfortunate thing for him is that, the longer he remains unsigned, the worse he looks in the public perception.
As far as can be determined, the Cowboys have made an offer and Aubrey’s camp has made an offer. It’s not in dispute that the Cowboys’ offer would make Aubrey the highest paid kicker in the NFL, where the current high is at $6.5 million per year, held by Ka’imi Fairbairn of the Texans. But the Cowboys offer would only just eclipse the record.
Aubrey wants to break the record more significantly, because the kicking game is changing and because he has proven to be among the best kickers for all three years he has been in the league. The Dallas Morning News has said Aubrey wants $10 million per year, but others dispute that and say he’s asking for something less.
Cowboys, Brandon Aubrey Situation Has ‘A Lot of Incorrect Information’
Again, the tricky thing is that the Cowboys hold the cards here and and sit back as an organization and wait to make the next move. Aubrey can only twist in the wind while different stories and rumors emerge about a process that is about as stimulating as watching paint dry.
Some of the stories and rumors are not true. And there’s not much Aubrey can do.
“It’s been a lot incorrect information, people clinging on to random numbers that have been thrown out,” Aubrey said on Thursday on “The Dumb Zone” podcast. “There’s incomplete information dumped from both sides at this point and people are trying to make this a story out of scraps of information that they don’t have details on.
“So, I don’t care about all that. I just focus on kicking the football. If I have a good year, it will all take care of itself so that’s what I am going to focus on.”
Brandon Aubrey ‘Couldn’t Open Instagram’
As different stories and numbers crop up from Cowboys beat writers and outsiders, Aubrey hears about it on Instagram, primarily. When the original report of his $10 million demand–which he later denied–emerged, he heard about it. A lot.
“It’s all on Instagram,” Aubrey said. “There was a time when I couldn’t open Instagram without 40 posts being the same thing about my contract. I was like, ‘I am not gonna use this app for a while. It got under Jen’s skin for a bit, she’s probably my biggest defender and she didn’t want people having an opinion based on false information.
“So, I think it got her really fired up and she wanted to go to take Instagram by storm and tell everyone how wrong they are. But I had to hold her back. I think I did a good job, she is not worried about it anymore.”
Cowboys Deal Will Come
Aubrey and his wife did clap back at some Cowboys fans who went after him for asking for too much money, claiming that the reports of a $10 million demand were, “fake” and “false.” Aubrey said that everyone should just calm down and let the process play out.
“I let her do that one. I did the same thing,” Aubrey said. “At that point, it was so overwhelming that, felt like just turning the valve on a pressure cooker open a little bit to ease the pressure off of us, because at that point, every time we looked at our phones, there was 100 DMs and messages telling us how selfish and greedy you are, just take that offer.
“And, it was like, ‘OK, we didn’t get the offer you think we got, so let’s just move on.’ That’s all we wanted to say. Just know that I want to be here in Dallas and the Cowboys want me here in Dallas. So, something will happen eventually.”
Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney
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