FRISCO, Texas — Tell us if you’ve heard this before: The Dallas Cowboys need a kicker. Unfortunately, this has become a yearly trend (or nearly so) in the years since kicker Dan Bailey was released.
It’s been a list of players brought in to try and find a long-term answer since that fateful decision in 2018. There have been a variety of veteran talent as well as youth, hoping to solve the problem only to eventually discover that it wasn’t. absolutely.
As the 2023 NFL Draft approaches, you wonder if the Cowboys are now ready to spend one of their beloved draft picks at the kicker position, but let’s be clear: That’s not something Dallas is comfortable doing.
They drafted just two kickers in the Jerry Jones era: Nick Folk in 2007 and David Buehler in 2011, neither of whom were successful (probably making Jones not want to repeat it in the future). Buehler lost the battle against an undrafted kicker named… Dan Bailey.
But while Bailey proved that a legend can be found in undrafted free agency, time has shown that he’s far from the norm, and maybe it’s really time to address the problem with a pick this April.
What Was Here (2022):
Lirim Hajrullahu, Jonathan Garibay
There really isn’t an objective way to nicely describe the 2022 training camp battle between these two kickers, because it truly was an abject disaster. There were times when Hajrullahu, experiencing another bid to stay with the Cowboys, was able to string together some quality kicks, but overall both he and Garibay (an undrafted rookie) put on an embarrassing display in Oxnard that ultimately led to another reunion with Brett Maher.
There were many who wondered which version of Maher would appear last season: the one who set records for the Cowboys or the one who was sent home because his inconsistency on onside kicks became too glaring to turn a blind eye. As it turned out, it was the best version of Maher that he donned in the regular season, becoming one of the Cowboys’ best weapons in the process. His skills faltered in the playoffs, however, and the Cowboys are back to square one this offseason, trying to find a true successor to Bailey.
