- 21 hours ago
Shan, RJ and Bobby discussed Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey’s contract situation and what Dallas could do with his upcoming tender. They broke down whether Aubrey should push to reset the kicker market, how much leverage the Cowboys actually have, and what the team’s recent cap moves and restructures with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Tyler Smith could mean for Dallas heading into free agency.
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00:01From news and notes to the coaches and players for America's team,
00:05let us go Inside the Stars on 105.3 The Fan.
00:09And we do it on your official home of the Dallas Cowboys.
00:13You are not going to get the breaking news, the trades, the free agent coverage anywhere else,
00:18like right here on DFW Sports Station.
00:21In my opinion, Sean Trafford, J. Choppy Cowboys,
00:24inside of Bobby Belt, along with Peyton Phillip Russell.
00:26The payload is coming up at 640.
00:28We have an Eagles ticket giveaway in the 7 o'clock expressway.
00:32Got Cowboy Audio out of nowhere yesterday as Dak Prescott and Brandon Aubrey were speaking at charity events.
00:41And you know what? Let's start off with the kicker.
00:44Let's start off with Brandon Aubrey talking about his contract status.
00:50Don't really have much going at the moment.
00:53Just sitting around waiting.
00:55So, obviously, the tender is what the Cowboys have talked about.
01:00And, you know, it's a good problem to have.
01:02It's a good amount of money.
01:04It's a big pay raise for me from before, but it's not ideal for any player.
01:10So, we'll see what happens.
01:12I'm excited to be in this position.
01:14It's an opportunity for me just to be in this position.
01:18It's an opportunity for me to be in this position, so thank you for that.
01:21Yeah.
01:22It is not a great position for him to be in.
01:25Because with the Cowboys, to me, the tug of war here is, hey, we really got you by the stones,
01:32right?
01:32Like, you're a kicker.
01:34This is not Michael Parsons.
01:36This is not Dak Prescott.
01:37If they really wanted, like, the best no-doubt-about-it move for the Cowboys is second-round tender.
01:43I'm paying them $5 million in change.
01:46And if someone wants to pay him that, I get a second-round pick for a kicker.
01:50Yes.
01:51Sign me up.
01:52How much do you weigh an unhappy kicker screwing over your season?
01:56Again, it's not the same as Micah Parsons with a podcast and a bigger name and profile or your quarterback
02:02or your wide receiver.
02:04So, Brandon's got to decide, do I take this $6.5 million offer, whatever it is, that has me beat
02:15Bucker, barely, versus fighting for the 8 or 10 that he's reportedly asked for,
02:24or play under the tender and see if another team tries to come and get me to give me the
02:29contract that I want.
02:31How much noise do I make with this, to me, a sucky situation?
02:37Yeah, I don't care about your price.
02:39He's trying to be political here, right, in terms of it's a nice pay increase, nice pay jump.
02:44Screw all that.
02:45We know he's worth more than the tender.
02:47So, what do you do if you're Todd France?
02:50No, I think he's worth it.
02:51I wouldn't be the one to give him what he's worth.
02:56Man, obviously, outside of the football, a lot of this depends on his own personal situation, right?
03:03Does he want to stay where he is?
03:04Does he like, is $5.5 million or $5.75 million here worth more than $7 or $8 somewhere else?
03:10You know, would he rather uproot his family?
03:13You know, I know he's got a good spot where he lives.
03:16So, obviously, all that plays into it.
03:19I know he's got a really good spot where he lives.
03:21Yeah.
03:22We get daily stalker reports on Brandon.
03:26We get, oh, he's on the field kicking.
03:28He's on the practice field.
03:29He's on the middle school field kicking right now.
03:31He just wants it more.
03:32He does.
03:35But, yeah, like, if you're Brandon Aubrey, you want to reset the market.
03:40Like, that's the goal, right?
03:41That's the goal for all these players.
03:43The Cowboys have offered him that reset.
03:44Yeah, they have.
03:46Is it, and you've got to look at it, you know, like, a quarterback going for $55 to $60 million,
03:51percentage-wise, what is the jump for going from $6 million to $8 million?
03:56I think the $6 million to $8 million is a much bigger jump.
03:58That's a 33% jump?
04:00Yeah, versus $55 to $60 million, that's a much smaller cap percentage jump.
04:05I think he's got to look at it closer to that.
04:07Yeah, I mean, is France allowed to call around right now to the other teams?
04:13He is, right?
04:14He can't now.
04:15He can once free agency starts.
04:17But, I mean, I'm sure he's kicked it around.
04:20Hey, we've got a kicker from Notre Dame.
04:22Yeah.
04:22And so they've, I'm sure.
04:25That Lou Holtz, poor that Lou Holtz sympathy on it.
04:27I'm sure he's getting some level of reports back to him about who would be interested.
04:33But what he's faced with, yeah, is if they slap the second-round tender on him
04:37and nobody wants to give up a second and pay, then if he doesn't get an extension done,
04:42he's making like $5.5 million next year.
04:44And so it's like, all right, well, do you want $5.5 million,
04:46or do you want to reset the market and make $6.5 million?
04:48And I think they would probably say they would just, my guess, I don't know this,
04:53my guess is they would play on the tender because they'd be like, well, fine,
04:56I'll play on the tender and then reach the market to get my $12 million,
04:59but I'm not just locking in with y'all at a million more.
05:02I'm not doing that and taking away my value.
05:05Right.
05:05Adam Schefter on the Adam Schefter podcast says he thinks the number could be 12?
05:13I think this is one of the most least talked about, interesting, intriguing free agent storylines
05:20that are out there.
05:21Brandon Aubrey, to me, has turned into one of the great weapons in the game.
05:25But Brandon Aubrey is going to get tendered.
05:28And if the Dallas Cowboys offer him a second-round tender,
05:31I don't know what the price of that is exactly, I have to go see.
05:35But if you're a team that's out there, wouldn't it make sense to go pay Brandon Aubrey?
05:42The highest-paid kicker right now is at about $6.5 million.
05:46I believe it's Harrison Butker.
05:48What would you be willing to pay a guy who made a difference in every single game?
05:56Is that worth $8 million, $10 million, $12 million?
06:02What is it worth to you?
06:04This is where the Cowboys and that Jones connection needs to reach out and ask Adam,
06:12do you know that someone would pay $12?
06:15Do you know that someone would give up a second?
06:18Because this is how these agent relationships work, right?
06:21Get the feedback from Adam, Adam can take it back to another team and play the in-between.
06:27Yeah, there was that article, I can't remember who had it.
06:30There was that article on Schefter following him around.
06:33I can't remember, this was probably five years ago, six years ago.
06:36But he was talking about some player calling him and him being like,
06:39all right, here's the market, here's what people...
06:41He's this information broker.
06:43And that's how a lot of teams use it.
06:44We joke about it, but it's legitimate.
06:46Jay Glazer got Mike McCarthy hired here.
06:48Like, those big national insiders do have a ton of influence over how things move.
06:55And maybe the Cowboys just go, look, we're going to stick the tender on you.
06:59We're going to pay you the five and change.
07:00And Todd France goes, okay, enough with the $10 million bluff.
07:04If that's what it is, let's just do this for eight.
07:07And then we settle at eight and move forward.
07:10Because nobody, I mean, having him playing the tender, I mean, it's fair.
07:14It's within the rules.
07:16Because, I mean, I think even the Cowboys, all right, that's a little dirty.
07:19Yeah.
07:20You're doing them dirty.
07:20It's within the rules.
07:21It's a fair game.
07:22Players agree to it.
07:23I don't think they're worried about negotiating tactics with Todd France.
07:28That's the other thing I was wondering.
07:30I think they feel like you've handled separate negotiations with us in a really aggressive,
07:34like, use every tool sort of way.
07:37We're well within reason to slap this on him and say he's going to play on that.
07:40I was wondering how much, like, payback and carryover could be, even though it's not supposed
07:45to.
07:46Right.
07:46Because it's not, you know, Brandon Aubrey.
07:48He didn't do anything.
07:48He didn't do anything wrong.
07:50Like, you have a limited, I mean, how many agents are there?
07:53I mean, there's a lot, but, like, how many real agents are there?
07:55Like, power agents, there's going to be, like, real notable ones, probably like five.
08:00That are considered, like, industry-wide super powerful.
08:03Every single one of them has hacked a team off.
08:05Mm-hmm.
08:06That's their job.
08:07It's their job, too.
08:08Like, it's not Bryce Harper's fault that Scott Boris had a bad negotiation with Pete Alonso
08:16or whatever, right?
08:17It shouldn't affect the other players.
08:20I've said it before.
08:21There was a player about eight years ago, seven, eight years ago, who had asked the Cowboys
08:26for, like, a recommendation because they were going to switch agents, and they were told
08:30by somebody in the organization, we don't care who you pick, just anybody but Todd France.
08:35Who do you think they prefer to deal with more, France or Muligeta?
08:38Well, they didn't really even deal with Muligeta, did they?
08:40They just tried.
08:41I think on tactics, David.
08:46On potential results, maybe Todd.
08:48But, I mean, they're both athletes' first juggernauts.
08:52Dak Prescott was speaking at a charity event, and Todd France's quarterback client was
08:57asked, are you excited with all this hype over Jerry possibly spending big?
09:03Heck, yeah.
09:03Most definitely.
09:04Especially, as I said, no projects or whatever.
09:07We need guys now to play.
09:08Yeah, no red shirts or whatever.
09:10Yeah, I mean, we got a coach in the second year.
09:13We know we've had some ups and downs.
09:15We've tried some good moments last year, and this is the year that you make a big jump
09:20and getting big-time players who can help immediately is a key part of it.
09:23This is the year we make the big jump.
09:25I do my typical eye roll.
09:27Dak says that every single offseason.
09:29But the thing that jumped out to him was no more red shirt draft picks.
09:33And speaking of the Cowboy money, they did get under the $301 million cap yesterday
09:40by restructuring Dak, CeeDee Lamb, and Tyler Smith.
09:44They were nearly $55 million over, but they restructured, clearing around $66 million,
09:51according to the great Todd Archer.
09:53Which I...
09:54Except for deli selection.
09:55We said something.
09:56You kind of liked the sandwich the second time.
09:58Yeah.
09:58Just not the soup.
10:00We had talked about this a little bit yesterday, but anybody who hears that and goes,
10:06oh my gosh, thank God you had this.
10:08Like, what if you didn't have this and you'd be screwed on the cap?
10:11They have managed their cap to be in a position to where they would flip that switch.
10:15Everyone does.
10:16Yeah, yeah.
10:16These are built in...
10:17Some Kansas City, apparently.
10:19They're built-in logistical triggers that they have in there because they want to set this up.
10:23So this wasn't like some panic.
10:25This is what they do.
10:25This is how they shift around their money.
10:27The question now is, how many more do you want to flip and potentially set up some real
10:34tough cap decisions in about three years in the name of opening up a window?
10:37So right now they have...
10:38All I want to know is what can you spend?
10:4010?
10:42Right...
10:43Absolutely.
10:43Right now or once they're done with everything they can put up?
10:46Right now it's a few million.
10:48They're just getting cap compliant right now.
10:49And when the day...
10:51When it opens, what do you think they'll have?
10:53They can get up to like 40.
10:55I imagine they'll probably be...
10:59Probably like 30.
11:00But I don't want...
11:01Again, we talked about this.
11:02When you hear 30, that does not mean...
11:04Well, if you sign somebody who makes 15 million dollars annually...
11:0715's gone.
11:08That's 15 right there.
11:09No, that cap number's probably going to be like 5.
11:10So you got to think of it more in terms of cap numbers and what they can fit under.
11:15Kevin Hagelin said...
11:16I thought it was a very interesting point.
11:18Kevin Hagelin moaned or whatever that voice is.
11:21He was moaning during crosstalk yesterday.
11:23What happened?
11:24Oh, man.
11:24He was groaning.
11:25Sour.
11:26Moaning and groaning.
11:27Why?
11:27He did not like...
11:28So I guess they went into the clubhouse.
11:30They had locker room availability.
11:32Clubhouse availability at 7 a.m. usually.
11:34And he was not happy with his performance.
11:37Oh.
11:37Beating himself up.
11:38Yeah.
11:39We just tried to ask him about the NBA on NBC game.
11:42The throwback game everybody loved.
11:43And he's like, didn't like it.
11:44It's like, why?
11:45He goes, why do y'all want me to like it so bad?
11:46It's like, okay.
11:47Just chill out, bro.
11:49I got to let you know how much I care.
11:51Um, Hagelin took a sentence from Jerry's Combine interview, and we didn't really focus on it.
11:58When Jerry said, I want you to know that the only way for, uh, to push more is for me
12:04to go borrow some of my future.
12:06Okay.
12:07Expect me to go borrow some of my future.
12:09Yep.
12:10What is that about?
12:11It flips switches and do things that you're putting your, you're, we were talking about this yesterday.
12:16You're, you're buying new furniture on credit and you're shuffling around some debt where it's like, yeah, uh, there's going
12:23to come today.
12:24We're going to have to pay the piper, but that's future Jerry's problem right now.
12:27It's a, it's free money.
12:28So this is them attempting to, we talk about certain teams being in windows.
12:32This is the Cowboys trying to open one.
12:34Inside the star on your official home of the Dallas Cowboys with the best Cowboys insider on radio, at least,
12:42uh, here on Sean and RJ.
12:44I was just going to do that.
12:46Thanks for being a total that stands for turn it on, leave it all.
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