The Dallas Cowboys experienced some huge problems in the kicking department this past postseason with Brett Maher being far from reliable. They have made a huge decision to Wednesday to hopefully sure up that department moving forward.
Maher famously missed four straight extra points in their Wild Card Round victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Things didn’t get much better in the Divisional Round, with Maher missing another extra point in their loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said following their postseason loss that the organization would “go back to the drawing board” at the kicker position. This certainly may indicate that Maher’s days are numbered within the organization. At the very least, he will have some competition for his starting role next season.
The team revealed on Wednesday that they have signed veteran kicker Tristan Vizcaino. Vizcaino was previously signed to the Cowboys practice squad after Maher’s initial struggles in the postseason, but they ultimately decided to stick with Maher.
This will be his second stint in Dallas after previously signing a futures deal with the Cowboys in 2020.
Vizcaino has been a journeyman in his four-year NFL career, playing on four different teams in his career. He will look to stick on in Dallas and take advantage of an extremely rocky kicking situation in Dallas.
Maher is set to become a free agent this offseason, and this move indicates that he may not be returning to Dallas for the 2023-24 season. It will certainly be intriguing to see if Dallas decides to bring in further competition for Vizcaino this off-season. In his four NFL seasons, he has made 11-12 field goal attempts and 15-20 extra point attempts.
