HEADLINES

Brett Maher

Cowboys Not Signing Kicker

December 1st, 2019 at 5:52pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

It appears Brett Maher‘s job is still safe, for now. This morning we heard word that Dallas was working out three kickers, including former Chargers and Redskin kicker Nick Rose. But despite hosting the specialists the Cowboys won’t be signing any of them at this time, a source told veteran Dallas beat writer Clarence Hill Jr. (Twitter link).

The Cowboys lost to the Bills in humiliating fashion on Thanksgiving, and Maher missed two crucial kicks in that game. He’s been struggling all year, and has converted only 67.9 percent of his attempts on the season. Maher finished his college career at Nebraska all the way back in 2013, but didn’t make his regular season NFL debut until last year.

He was pretty solid as a rookie after beating out veteran Dan Bailey in training camp, but the Cowboys might be regretting their decision right about now. While Maher seems to have at least one more week left on his leash, he might not have much longer. There’s a lot of tension in the building right now, and another crucial miss likely won’t be tolerated.

Cowboys To Try Out Kickers

December 1st, 2019 at 11:11am CST by Rory Parks

We heard just two days ago that the Cowboys would not be moving on from sophomore kicker Brett Maher, but the team is at least putting Maher on notice. As Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets, Dallas is bringing in three kickers for a workout today.

The Cowboys suffered an ugly loss to the Bills on Thanksgiving, and while there was plenty of blame to go around, Maher missed two field goals, which triggered speculation that Dallas could look for a replacement. Indeed, Maher has struggled to a 67.9% success rate on field goal attempts in 2019, which puts him among the league’s most inaccurate kickers.

That mark is well below the 80.6% success rate he posted in his rookie campaign in 2018, and while he is perfect on PATS this year, his accuracy on medium- to long-range kicks leaves much to be desired. Maher has connected on just five of 12 attempts from 40 yards or more.

Per Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys are working out Austin MacGinnis, Nick Rose, and Tristan Vizcaino (Twitter link). Of those three, only Rose has any regular season NFL experience.

It’s unclear if the Cowboys would consider cutting Maher if they are impressed by one of the tryout players, but they are at least trying to spur Maher into a quick turnaround.

Cowboys Notes: Beasley, Garrett, Maher

November 29th, 2019 at 11:57am CST by Marc Delucchi

Former Cowboys receiver Cole Beasley had a bumpy tenure with the team. Beasley was a fan favorite in Dallas from 2012-2018, but became frustrated with the team when his role did not expand to the degree he thought it should. After signing with the Bills this offseason, Beasley got to exert his revenge in Buffalo’s 26-15 victory in Dallas on Thursday.

In the postgame celebration of Buffalo’s Thanksgiving day victory, Beasley told reporters that he felt “disrespected” in Dallas and felt that they disrespected him again in his return, according to Angel Franco of The Dallas Morning News. Beasley caught six passes for 110 receiving yards and a touchdown against his former team.

Here’s some more Cowboys notes:

  • Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones ripped his coaching staff after last week’s loss to the Patriots. After an even more disappointing loss to Buffalo on Thursday, all eyes were on the maverick owner to see if he would once again criticize his coaching staff. While Jones was not full of praise, he tried to calm the flames around the team by saying he will not make any coaching moves during the season, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. This does not remove the pressure on head coach Jason Garrett to make a deep playoff run, but should make it easier to focus on the upcoming schedule.
  • Cowboys placekicker Brett Maher is in the midst of a massive sophomore slump. After an impressive rookie season that included 6 makes on 7 attempts from at least 50 yards, the Nebraska product has made just 67.9% of his field goal attempts in 2019. While special teams has been a huge problem for the Cowboys, they will not be making a change at kicker, according to Jon Machota of The Athletic. Maher has yet to miss an extra point on the season and remains 14 of 16 inside 40 yards, but will surely hope to improve his accuracy from deeper range during the rest of the season.

Minor NFL Transactions: 4/4/18

April 4th, 2018 at 4:17pm CST by Zachary Links

We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

  • Signed: K/P Brett Maher
  • Waived: WR Brian Brown

Detroit Lions

  • Waived: QB Alek Torgersen

Indianapolis Colts

Miami Dolphins

Minor NFL Transactions: 5/2/17

May 2nd, 2017 at 6:32pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

  • Waived: LB Cavellis Luckett

Carolina Panthers

Cleveland Browns

  • Waived: K Brett Maher

Detroit Lions

New England Patriots

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

Washington Redskins

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/20/17

March 20th, 2017 at 8:16pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are today’s minor moves.

  • The Patriots released running back Tyler Gaffney, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Gaffney has an extensive history with the Patriots but hasn’t played in a game. He spent the past three summers with the team, failing to make New England’s 53-man roster out of camp in each. He vacillated between the Pats’ active roster and practice squad last year, so if history is any indication, a reunion at could ensue at some point later this year.
  • The Chargers re-signed previously non-tendered defensive end Tenny Palepoi, according to a team announcement. Palepoi missed the entire 2015 season with a foot injury but returned to action in 2016. He had 13 tackles in 13 games but wound up missing the last three contests due to a PED suspension. He still has to finish out that ban by sitting out one game in 2017.
  • Another Bolts move: ERFA wide receiver Geremy Davis signed his tender.
  • The Panthers announce they’ve re-signed cornerback Teddy Williams to a one-year extension. Mainly utilized in a special teams role, Williams played in only three games last year due to a knee injury. In 2015, he appeared in all 16 regular-season contests for the NFC champions.
  • Long snapper Jon Condo re-signed with the Raiders. Condo’s been the Silver and Black’s long snapper since the 2007 season after breaking into the NFL with the 2005 Cowboys. Given that long snappers have a precise salary range — 14 of them earn between $1MM and $1.15MM per year — it’s fairly easy to project Condo’s next contract’s AAV. The 36-year-old is the Raiders’ second-longest-tenured player behind Sebastian Janikowski.
  • Cody Parkey will have some competition with the Browns this summer. Cleveland added CFL kicker Brett Maher from the CFL. The 27-year-old hasn’t appeared in an NFL game yet. He’s kicked in Canada for the past three seasons, spending 2016 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Maher made 41 of 50 field goal tries for Hamilton. Parkey, 24, hit 20 of his 25 attempts and made 20 of 21 PATs.
  • The Redskins announced the re-signing of left tackle Ty Nsekhe. Washington placed an ERFA tender on Nsekhe, who at 31 is much older than players normally involved in these transactions. Nsekhe spent the past two seasons with Washington, starting in six games in that span. Four of those starts came last season while Trent Williams was serving a substance-abuse suspension.
  • After the Nick Folk signing created a stacked Buccaneers kicker depth chart, the team released John Lunsford, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Folk and Roberto Aguayo will battle for the Bucs’ kicker job, leaving Lunsford without a role.