Brandon Aubrey solidified his place as the Dallas Cowboys kicker when he drilled a 59-yard field goal in Saturday's preseason finale. Aubrey overcome a wonky start to training camp and put together a solid preseason, leaving Cowboys fans with a semblance of hope that he could fill Brett Maher's regular season shoes.
The fan base will be tracking Maher's performance in the 2023 season.
Signed by the Broncos right before the start of camp, Maher had seemingly won the starting job despite a forgettable preseason debut that included a missed kick and a blocked field goal. Sounds a lot like Maher's performance in the playoffs last year that ultimately led to the Cowboys moving on from the vet.
Well, Maher's stint in the Mile-High City has run its course, as he was released after the Broncos surprisingly traded for Saints kicker Wil Lutz.
Broncos have cut kicker Brett Maher per source. Apparently confirming report of Will Lutz acquisition. #9sports
— Mike Klis (@mikeklis) August 29, 2023
Ex-Cowboys kicker Brett Maher cut by Broncos after Wil Lutz trade
There's shockingly been a ton of kicker movement around the NFL leading up to Tuesday's roster deadline. Maher is unfortunately on the wrong end of the carousel, as Broncos head coach Sean Payton seemingly saw to it that the front office moved for his former kicker in New Orleans.
Lutz kicked under Payton for five seasons, but is coming off the worst year of his career by a significant margin.
In 2022, Lutz made just 74.2% of his field goals, including a lackluster 4-of-8 between 40 and 49 yards. He did, however, convert all 33 of his extra-points, so perhaps Payton is banking on Lutz's career field goal percentage to regress back to the mean (his career average is 84.6%) while continuing to drill XPs at a high clip.
Still, it's hard not to sympathize with Maher. By no means did the ex-Cowboy have a poor training camp and he did just fine in preseason.
Given all the kicker turnover and the number of teams who still have uncertainty at the position, we expect Maher to get another crack at the starting job. Should that happen, hopefully he won't be blindsided by another trade.