OXNARD, CA – The Dallas Cowboys waived Texas Tech Kicker Jonathon Garibay on Tuesday morning and signed Kicker Brett Maher. That name might sound familiar, it’s because Maher kicked for Dallas in the 2018 season as well as the 2019 season.
The Cowboys have been struggling at the kicker position all training camp and it was no secret to everyone there that was witnessing it. The Cowboys announced Monday night that they would be bringing four kickers to practice on Tuesday morning to try out. Those four kickers being: Brett Maher, Matt Ammendola, Cole Murphy, and JJ Molson.
The daily competition was between Garibay and Lirim Hajrallahu. Hajrallahu took charge early and won every day during training camp when it came to percentage of kicks made. Garibay struggled, kicking roughly 50 percent for the first two weeks of training camp.
Concerns started to flood the camp when everyone expected Garibay to be the starting kicker for Dallas this season. When the struggles became apparent the question was asked to head coach Mike McCarthy and Jerry Jones if they were going to look for other options at the kicker position. Both stated no at the time but it’s clear now they changed their mind after looking at four other options at practice on Tuesday.
Maher went 29-of-36 in the 2018 season at 80.6 percent success rate. He was 100 percent between 20-29 yards, he missed two at 30-39, and went 7-of-11 from 40-49 yards. He also struggled at 50 yards+ converting on 50 percent kicking 4-of-8.
In 2019 he had a rough go converting on 20-of-30 kicks at a 66 percent success rate. He struggled between the 40-49 yard line going 1-of-5 for the season. This led to Maher going to New Orleans where he played for the Saints in 2021. He hit 16-of-18 with a success rate of 88 percent.
Maher was seen wearing no. 19 today at practice, Amari Cooper’s old number. We will see what he can do for Dallas during their first preseason game they have scheduled against Denver on Saturday night.
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