Will Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey break the NFL’s longest field goal record in Denver?

FRISCO, Texas — The kicker position typically isn’t the most exciting one to watch in football, but Dallas Cowboys All-Pro Brandon Aubrey is the exception.

For those who tune in weekly, it can sometimes feel like Aubrey is threatening — or outright setting — some kind of NFL kicking record every game. He did just that in Dallas’ 44-22 win over the Washington Commanders in Week 7, drilling a 61-yard field goal that marked his fifth career make from 60 yards or beyond, the most in league history.

“Hopefully that’s just the start,” Aubrey told CBS Sports on Friday. “Hopefully we can hold on to the record. Guys are getting better and better. I don’t think five is going to hold it for long.”

Aubrey’s growing list of milestones includes:

• An NFL-record 35 consecutive field goals to begin a career.
• A league-record 14 made field goals from 50 yards or longer in 2024, the most ever in a single season.
• The longest field goal in Cowboys history, a 65-yarder in Week 3 last season against the Ravens — the second-longest in NFL history.
• Five career makes from 60 yards or more, the most all-time.

One record, however, remains just out of reach: the longest field goal in NFL history. That mark belongs to former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, who hit a 66-yard game-winner to beat the Lions, 19-17, in Week 3 of the 2021 season.

Aubrey might have his best shot yet at topping that number this Sunday, when the Cowboys visit the Denver Broncos. Empower Field at Mile High sits 5,280 feet above sea level, and three of the eight longest outdoor field goals in league history have been kicked there, per CBS Sports’ John Breech: Jason Elam’s 63-yarder (1998), Sebastian Janikowski’s 63-yarder (2011) and Matt Prater’s 64-yarder (2013).

Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer echoed the NFL’s official X (formerly Twitter) account in praising Aubrey’s 61-yarder last week, specifically the “ease” with which it was struck.

“We’ll see how he practices. I don’t know yet. He might not be very good. I don’t know?” Schottenheimer said sarcastically on Monday when asked about Aubrey kicking in the altitude. “I think he’ll probably be pretty good. … I showed the team the 61-yard field goal today — and I’m not a kicking expert — but what amazes me is the ease in just the way the operation goes. … Altitude might make it interesting.”

The ease Schottenheimer referenced isn’t just a matter of opinion. Cowboys two-time Pro Bowl punter Bryan Anger, who also serves as Aubrey’s holder, said Friday that when factoring in how high — or how deep into the net — Aubrey’s made kicks travel, several have effectively cleared the uprights from more than 70 yards out.

“His makes have been at 71, 72 distance carry,” Anger told CBS Sports. “I think that it’s there just doing the same thing that he’s been doing and not trying [purposefully] at a longer distance because they are traveling longer.”  

Dallas actually had a chance to let Aubrey attempt a 67-yarder during last week’s win over Washington. Facing fourth-and-11 from the Commanders’ 49-yard line with a 34-15 lead and 6:57 remaining, Schottenheimer chose to punt. But that decision doesn’t mean he’d make the same call Sunday in Denver.

He explained that not attempting the long kick in Week 7 was about game situation — with the Cowboys’ defense dominating and Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels out with a hamstring injury.

“Can Brandon make that kick? Of course he can. Did we talk about it? We did, but at the end of the day, I felt again with the time in the game, the way the game was kind of going we felt that was the right one.”

* among 24 kickers with at least 60 field goal attempts since 2023

The confidence is certainly there to trot Aubrey out in Mile High for a 67-yarder or deeper. Schottenheimer celebrated the All-Pro kicker in front of the entire team this week, awarding him one of several game balls handed out for standout Week 7 performances.

“I want to celebrate our guys when they do cool, cool, cool shit. The record is amazing — most 60-yard field goals. I asked him, ‘How many years you got in the league?’ He said, ‘Two and a half.’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re an old man.’ But he’s going to have plenty of time to break records. If it happens in Denver this week, great. If it doesn’t, I’m quite sure he’ll own that record at some point.”

Despite kicking in altitude and outdoors this week, Aubrey said he isn’t altering his pregame process — which centers on trial and error and finding his comfort level that day. Together with Anger and long snapper Trent Sieg during warmups, he establishes the longest distance he thinks he can make a field goal and then relays that to special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen and Schottenheimer. That number can shift slightly depending on adrenaline and game flow.

“Nothing changes, just go see what it looks like in warmups, go report a line to the coaching staff of where we’re comfortable kicking from, and then from there, make the kicks they give me,” Aubrey said. “The line is more reflected on the play caller’s decision. Whether they’re comfortable turning the ball over from there because if I miss, they get the ball from their own side of the field. Wherever they’re comfortable … is the biggest thing.”

Ironically, Aubrey’s pursuit of the NFL’s longest made field goal record comes without him ever actually practicing from that distance. He typically caps his practice range at 58 or 59 yards, occasionally testing a 60-yarder. His daily regimen starts with short extra points from both hashes, and then Aubrey turns over the decision-making for his practice kick locations over to Anger and Sieg, trusting his guys to give him enough variety to get him ready for Sundays. 

“You hit a ball from 59, you can just look at it and watch it and see, ‘OK, it hit the net halfway up — it’s got another six, seven yards,'” Aubrey said. “So you don’t have to go back there and hammer a ball from 65 to tell yourself or make an example that you’re good from that distance.”

If Aubrey simply replicates the same smooth operation from Week 7 — when he drilled a 61-yarder — he could easily have the leg for 67 yards, which would set a new NFL record.

“Yeah, yes,” Aubrey said when asked about that line of thinking. “Mmmhmm.”