Cowboys somehow managed to make kicking woes worse

Brett Maher imploded on the Cowboys at the end of the season, but Dallas’ early solution to the kicking problem only makes things worse.

Whenever Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher missed his lone extra-point try in a lifeless regular-season finale against Washington, no one could’ve expected the absolute disaster that awaited in the playoffs that would continue that trend.

In the Wild Card Round, Maher stunningly missed his first four PAT tries before knocking the last one home. It was such an implosion, though, that Dallas brought in Tristan Vizcaino off of the street as a potential backup plan ahead of the Divisional Round matchup against the 49ers. Maher kept his job, though. The woes didn’t stop, however, as he missed his lone extra point while making both field goal tries.

Now, Maher is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, meaning the Cowboys had the opportunity to try and fix the kicking game. Their solution was to re-sign Vizcaino on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, even with Maher seemingly having the yips, Vizcaino only makes the situation equally if not more problematic for Dallas.

Cowboys re-signing Tristan Vizcaino only makes kicking woes worse

The 26-year-old Vizcaino has only played 10 career games over three seasons, spending time with four different teams. Over that time, he’s 11-of-12 on field goals but has never made an attempt longer than 47 yards. Meanwhile, he’s a mere 15-of-20 on extra-point tries, most notably going only 10-of-15 in the 2021 season with the Chargers.

Would we call that a decisive upgrade over Maher? It’s hard to.

For all of Maher’s struggles in the playoffs, he has a 95.5% career success rate on extra points. On top of that, while he has a worse overall make percentage on field goals (81%), he has displayed a substantially better leg than Vizcaino. In fact, he’s made at least one 60-yard attempt in all three seasons in which he’s spent time with the Cowboys.

Now, just because Dallas signed Vizcaino now doesn’t mean he’ll be the kicker in Week 1. Heck, it doesn’t even mean that Maher won’t be brought back. However, there is a chance that the Cowboys believe that Vizcaino is a better option than Maher given the late-year struggles.

When you look at the numbers, though, that’s just not the case. Vizcaino is anything but a sure thing and fans have to hope that Dallas isn’t banking on him being that to solve any issues with the kicking game.