At this time last year, the Dallas Cowboys were trying to decide who would be their placekicker for the 2022 season. A training camp battle featured rookie Jonathan Garibay, veteran Lirim Hajrullahu, and finally former castoff Brett Maher. The job was ultimately handed to Maher, who had a career season in Dallas, proving many doubters wrong.
Unfortunately for Maher, he suffered the ‘yips’ in the playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and lost the front office’s faith to come back for another run with the team. It forced Dallas to dust off the drawing board they thought was put away last summer and start looking for another solution at kicker.
After speaking with longtime NFL kicker Nick Novak in an interview, he feels Dallas already has their guy on the roster.
“All they need to do is get playing time and get more experience to be a guy in that top five, like a Jason Meyers or Robbie Gould...they just need to play.”
The ‘they’ Novak refers to are Cowboys kickers Tristan Vizcaino and Brandon Aubrey. Vizcaino was on the practice squad during the playoffs as an insurance kicker and re-signed with the team as one of their first signings of the offseason. Aubrey signed after his second season in the USFL and his second championship with the Birmingham Stallions.
Novak was kicking in the NFL as a rookie in 2005 and retired in 2020. Since then, he’s become a coach for players at his position around the NFL, USFL, XFL, CFL, and younger levels with his own company, Novak Kicking and Consulting. He has worked with both Cowboys kickers for at least two years and recently worked with Vizcaino this offseason
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