Brandon Aubrey isn’t crazy. The Dallas Cowboys kicker says he can make a 70-yard field goal

In Brandon Aubrey’s right leg is potentially something more historic than what he achieved on Sunday night.

The Dallas Cowboys’ rookie from Plano has the power, and the accuracy, to do what Justin Tucker did and re-set the norm for the NFL kicker.

In the Cowboys’ win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, Aubrey’s 60-yard field goal would have been good from 65. His 59-yard field goal dented the back of the netting, by a comfortable margin.

That’s the first time in NFL history a kicker has made two field goals in the same game from 59 yards or longer.

Of the many solid moves the Cowboys have made in recent years, director of personnel Will McClay giving Aubrey a chance ranks among the finest.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott nicknamed Aubrey “Butter,” but “Godsend” feels right, too.

The Cowboys may have stumbled into a historic weapon. Aubrey can make a 70-yard field goal.

“I can, absolutely,” he said on Sunday night in the Cowboys’ locker room when he was surrounded by a few of us media scum.

A 70-yard field goal is no longer insane, even if the visual is nuts.

It may always be odd to see a kicker line up on the other side of the 50-yard line to try a kick. It may always be a surprise when the ball sails over through the uprights.

The NFL record for longest field goal belongs to former Texas kicker Justin Tucker, who hit a game-winning 66-yarder for the Ravens at Detroit in 2021. The ball hit the cross bar, and bounced high directly into the netting.

The NFL record for the longest field goal attempt was set by Sebastian Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders when coach Lane Kiffin sent “Sea Bass” out there to try a 76-yard field in 2008.

That attempt was into the wind, and on grass. It fell but two yards short not of the field goal itself but rather the goal line.

As sports evolves, it only makes sense that through advances in technology and strength training the modern day kicker will reduce what Tom Dempsey did in 1970 just another long field goal.

In 1970, Dempsey, who kicked for the New Orleans Saints, nailed a then record 63-yard field goal to defeat Detroit.

Here is a fun little factoid to annoy your friends with: The Lions were on the losing end of both of Dempsey and Tucker’s kicks by the same score, 19-17.

Dempsey’s record lasted for 40 years.

Much like a golf ball, which these days are so good one can fly straight and true from Colonial’s No. 3 tee box in Fort Worth to downtown Dallas on a windy day, the NFL’s “K” ball (kicker) is an inflated projectile.

“The purpose of this ball is to send it to the moon with my foot,” Tucker said in an interview with 60 Minutes last year.

The conditions to try a 70-yarder are hardly complex. Before the game, Aubrey tells the coaches what distances he feels comfortable with; after that it’s up to head coach Mike McCarthy.

A 70-yard attempt will have to come at the end of a half, and most likely in a dome stadium. Or, in the preseason.

A coach is not going to just try a low-percentage kick of this distance when the flip side would be to hand the ball to the opposition inside the 50-yard line.

With Aubrey’s leg, a 65-yard field goal feels like better percentages than a quarterback heave into the end zone.

He is 30-for-30 on his field goal attempts this season, including all eight from 50 or more yards. The only kicks he has missed are the point-after variety; he is 39-of-42 on his PATs.

It was just a few years ago Aubrey was employed as a software engineer, and working on the side on field goals when the USFL launched. That gave him a shot to kick footballs rather than soccer balls.

“This was my wildest dreams, and they’ve come true,” he said Sunday.

While he may kick like some AI creation, Aubrey is very much human. He’s still a kicker, one of the trickiest positions in sports. This is far more mental than physical.

Their presence in an NFL locker room is the equivalent of one real-life unicorn in a stable full of thoroughbreds.

When asked if he feels anxiety or nerves before a kick he said, “Oh, yes. Absolutely. Just focus on (his) breathing technique. Don’t focus on the results, just the process. I talk to myself throughout the whole thing, and don’t let any of that (anxiety) creep in.”

He has the full confidence to kick from these long distances because even he acknowledges such attempts are usually “house money” dice rolls. If he misses a few from 55 yards, no one is going to think less of him.

“I can make as many of the kicks as they ask me to do,” Aubrey said. “It’s something I expect to do, at this point.”

At this point, don’t be surprised if the Cowboys ask him to try a 70-yarder.

At this point, the only surprise will be if Brandon Aubrey misses it.