Brandon Aubrey details free agency process that led to record Cowboys’ extension
On Monday, the Dallas Cowboys finalized a four-year, $28 million contract extension with three-time Pro Bowl kicker Brandon Aubrey that keeps him in Dallas through the 2030 season, but it didn’t go without some dramatics along the way.
After signing out of the USFL in 2023, Aubrey was resorted to restricted free agency this offseason rather than unrestricted free agency where he would have been free to sign with any team. In the restricted realm, the Cowboys can retain his rights by placing a tender on him which they did.
Prior to the opening of free agency in March, the Cowboys placed the second-round tender on Aubrey, meaning that a one-year, $5.8 million contract is handed to him to sign, or he can wait to see if another team makes him a better offer. If another team came in and signed Aubrey, that team would have to pay Dallas a second-round draft pick.
“The nature of contracts in the NFL being an undrafted guy, even though my contract is up, the Cowboys still have full control on my destiny,” Aubrey said on Tuesday. “They decided to put the second-round tender on me, which for a kicker puts you in the top [three] of highest-paid kickers, which is a big honor.”
Aubrey could have not only signed the tender contract, but also a long-term contract that was offered to him by the Cowboys before and after the 2025 season.
“Having never been through this process before, you need to explore all avenues,” he said. “The idea is to use another team to negotiate for the Cowboys since the Cowboys aren’t really incentivized to go raising the money since they own my rights for at least one more year. You start really high with the Cowboys before the window opens. And if they’re willing to meet that really high number, you take it. If not, then you explore your options and go from there.”
The process is pretty standard for a restricted free agency that has made noise early in his career. For Aubrey, he fulfilled that requirement. What he maybe didn’t expect was the public nature of the negotiations happening behind the scenes.
“The process, I wasn’t quite ready for it to be so public,” Aubrey said. “There’s obviously one point you’re talking about where very little details are leaking out. I’m not sure from where. But at that point, the noise got very loud for me and [wife] Jenn. We couldn’t really open our phones without being bombarded by one source or another. We just tried to release the pressure valve by answering some small comments on posts that let our side of the story have a little air.”
While that quieted the noise for the timebeing back in late February, the process was just beginning for Aubrey ahead of free agency. In his conversations with his agent, Todd France, he prioritized wanting to get it done in a timely manner.
“I was urging to get it done as fast as we could, which isn’t the way a lot of agents like doing it,” he said. “They want to slow-play it, and the teams like to slow-play it. I wanted both parties to come to the table and get it done faster. Both parties were willing to do that, and it’s just exciting to get it done before training camp.”
Even when things looked dicey from the outside-in at times, Aubrey never questioned where he wanted to play next season and for the long-term future. As a Plano native who has been able to stay home while chasing his kicking dream, staying with the Cowboys was the goal from the get-go.
“I always wanted it to be done,” he said. “I put in three fantastic seasons of work for the Cowboys, and they’re putting out messaging that they want me around and that they want me for the long-term. I felt the same way. I grew up here and love the organization. I wanted to be back and I felt like it could be a very simple conversation.”
“I didn’t feel we were too far off, more terms to deal with. I just kept telling Todd that I’d like to get it done in an expedited manner if possible. And to the Cowboys’ credit, they responded promptly to him and reached out to him proactively which works for us.”
The extension contract for Aubrey puts him at the top of the league in annual salary ($7 million) for the kicker position and for total guaranteed money on a contract ($20 million). The 2026 season will count toward the second-round tender before the official extension begins in 2027.
