Brandon Aubrey #17 of the Dallas Cowboys
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Brandon Aubrey #17 of the Dallas Cowboys
When it comes to kicking from extreme distances, no one does it quite as well as the Dallas Cowboys‘ Brandon Aubrey. In all, he has made six 60-yard field goals in his career, which is an NFL record, and he logged a career-long kick of 65 yards in 2024. Kicking from deep has become his calling card.
But an interesting question has been floating around the NFL recently, especially as the use of special kicking balls has helped fuel a push among teams to try kicks of exceptional length. There were 22 tries of 60 or more yards in 2025, the most in league history. There was a time when a 50-yard field goal try was considered a bit too ambitious. Now, that’s stretched to 60 yards.
In the UFL spring league, the rules reflect the new increased ability of kickers to nail attempts of considerable length. Teams are awarded four points when they make kicks of 60-plus yards, and it is certainly an interesting rule change that some say the NFL should adopt. but, according to Aubrey, it is not that simple.
Brandon Aubrey: ‘It’s a Little Weird’
Aubrey sees the advantage that such a rule would be for him and his kicking brethren. But in the bigger picture, he sees that play-callers like the Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer would be thrown into very difficult situations if they had to decide whether to attack the end zone or hang back for a 4-point field goal try.
“I think it’s a little weird,” Aubrey told ESPN. “Kind of incentivizes you to stall the drive in a certain spot. It makes you really, really question your play-calling around that 50-yard line area. It’s interesting for kickers that have the leg to get it there, maybe [there’s] a little bit more value there. But kind of perverses the incentives of football where the goal is to get it as close to the other person’s half as possible.
“So, I’m conflicted on it. I like it for the kickers. I think it’s a nightmare for the play-callers.”
Cowboys Kickoffs Changed Drastically
Already, the NFL has made significant changes to the kickoff rules in the last two years, and that has helped boost offense by routinely giving teams better field position. That has meant that it’s imperative for a team like the Cowboys to reward kickers like Aubrey, whose accuracy helps th Cowboys on kickoffs.
When he got into the NFL three years ago, the goal was to simply drive kickoffs into the end zone and force a touchback–90% of Aubrey’s kickoffs as a rookie were touchbacks. But with new NFL rules, that dropped to 49% in 2024 and 17% in 2025. There is much more pressure on kickers to be accurate on those plays.
Adding a 4-point incentive for 60-yard field goals might be too much.
Said Cam Little, the Jaguars‘ kicker, “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.”