The god of football
What if I told you that you were watching the greatest NFL player to ever live and you didn’t even realize it?
The NFL is obviously a complicated game, some positions are worth way more than others as evidenced by the way they are paid. Dak Prescott is going to get $60 million this year to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. He is hardly considered the best player in the league; Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen … the list goes on when looking at players a franchise would likely rather have. And while Prescott does have some illustrious awards to his name, looking all-time, most people would probably consider fellow Cowboys Quarterback Troy Aikman better. They would almost certainly also take a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning over Prescott. Clearly, measuring people by monetary value is a bad and rather sad way of looking at the world.
But in the way that some positions are worth more than others, many other positions require different skills than others. It’s why I will always be a proponent of Devin Hester, an electric Chicago Bears returner, going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Typically, return men are kind of an afterthought on an NFL roster. Currently, only a few current NFL teams actually pay a semi-legitimate return man, usually it’s just assigned to somebody that can catch kicks and has other uses. Back to Hester though, if you successfully return more kicks to the end zone than anybody else in NFL history, well, shouldn’t you deserve a spot in the hall?
Canton only enshrines “exceptional figures” in the sport of pro football. Hester was undeniably an exceptional figure—he’s the only one in history to return the opening kick of the Super Bowl for a touchdown for god’s sake.
Prescott, on the other hand? The jury is still out. He may turn into one and may already halfway be one, but his best accomplishment to date is getting second in MVP voting in 2023. Good? Absolutely, but does it meet the criteria for exceptional? He couldn’t even best everybody in his own league, let alone all-time.
But what if there was a man that, to date, has obliterated his way by everybody in the history of the NFL and everybody currently in the league? What if he’s on the same team as Prescott? What if he makes around 50 times less?
Brandon Aubrey is nearing immortality.
He just hit a 64-yard field goal to send a game to overtime this weekend. Then, he followed it up with an “easy” 46-yard field goal to seal the win.
With quarterbacks, it’s complicated. You can grade them on their vision, their decisions, their movement, the accuracy of their throws, the strength of their throws … the list goes on.
With kickers, it’s not so complicated—at least in this instance. You want a kicker who can kick the ball exceptionally far and exceptionally accurate.
When looking at NFL players, oftentimes, you take a sacrifice. You’ll draft a guy like Anthony Richardson, who can throw a football exceptionally far, in the top five of the NFL Draft with the hope that can develop his accuracy. Alternatively, perhaps you live with Drew Brees knowing that his accuracy will lead you to a Super Bowl, even if he doesn’t make ESPN’s top 10 regularly.
With Brandon Aubrey, sacrifices are non-existent. Typically, to be qualified for the all-time field goal percentage kickers leaderboard, you need 100 attempts. Aubrey is at 91. Barring a historic collapse, which he has shown no signs of, Aubrey is very likely to join that board as its leader. His current field goal attempts made percentage sits at 90.1%, a full percentage point above the next kicker. He is the most accurate kicker in NFL history.
That in and of itself is a phenomenal and grand accomplishment, but to understand the magnanimity of that situation, you must look deeper.
Not only is he the most accurate kicker in NFL history, he’s also successfully kicked the most 60-yard or more field goals in NFL history. He’s attempting the most egregious shots and is still the most accurate man on the face of the planet.
He has kicked the second and third longest field goals in NFL history with seeming ease. In preseason, he also tied the record for the longest NFL field goal at 66-yards, but that does not count in official statistics.
There was a time in the NFL when 60-yard field goals were unthinkable and when 40- or 50-yard field goals were a hit or miss chance. In 1982, Mark Moseley won the NFL MVP award despite never making a kick over 50 yards. He went 20 of 21 with his longest registering at 48-yards.
There is only a small section of kickers in Canton and someday, Brandon Aubrey is set to join them as the greatest of them all. In the meantime, enjoy the show. When the Cowboys face off against the Bears Sunday, their greatest advantage has nothing to do with Prescott. Instead, the question is: Can Prescott get them to the logo at midfield?
