In January, Brett Maher had a nightmare postseason kicking for the Dallas Cowboys. Maher went 1-for-6 on extra-point attempts, and it particularly became a big NFL story when he missed his first four extra-point tries in the Cowboys’ 31-14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round.
Peyton Manning gets up and walks away in disgust as Cowboys kicker Brett Maher misses an XP for the third straight time.
"You've got to be kidding me! Why are we kicking it?! Why are we kicking it?!"🏈😂 #ManningCast pic.twitter.com/m1eSnArw4V
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 17, 2023
Cowboys kicker Brett Maher misses again. That's 0-for-4 on extra point tries tonight. 😬😬😬😬
"Oh my goodness."- Peyton Manning
"Just got the shanks a little bit."- Dan Campbell
Peyton Manning just shakes his head and wants to chuck his football across the room. 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/9l7Zh1MHMd
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 17, 2023
This offseason, the Cowboys decided to move on from Maher and brought in Tristan Vizcaino and Brandon Aubrey to battle for the kicking job.
Well, Maher has found a new home.
The Denver Broncos have signed Maher to a one-year deal, according to Broncos beat writer Mike Klis of 9NEWS.
Source confirms Broncos have reached 1-year agreement with kicker Brett Maher. He kicked for Sean Payton with Saints in 2021. Had great season with Cowboys last year until extra-point yips in playoffs. Had minicamp tryout with Broncos in mid-June. #9sports
— Mike Klis (@mikeklis) July 22, 2023
As Klis notes, Maher was the New Orleans Saints’ kicker in 2021 while Sean Payton was head coach; Payton is now head coach of the Broncos.
While Maher is now known mostly for his struggles last postseason, he was actually a very effective kicker before that.
Maher made 29-of-32 field-goal attempts (90.6%) and 50-of-53 extra-point attempts (94.3%) with Dallas in the 2022 regular season. With the Saints in 2021, he went 16-of-18 (88.9%) on field-goal tries.
So, it’s possible that the 33-year-old rediscovers his high-quality kicking abilities under a coach he had success with before. Additionally, he went 9-of-11 on kicks of at least 50 yards last season with Dallas, and now he goes to the thin air in Denver where kicks get more distance.
Maher will enter a training camp battle with journeyman Elliott Fry for Denver’s starting kicker position.
