(Editor's Note: Over the next month, the staff of DallasCowboys.com is looking to answer the 20 biggest questions facing the team heading into the 2023 season. Today, the staff writers continue the series with anyone's best guess at the Cowboys' opening-day kicker.)
8) Who Will Be Cowboys' Week 1 Kicker?
Patrik Walker: I don't know that they're on this roster right now. Tristan Vizcaino got the first crack at the job in OTAs and mandatory minicamp and he acquitted himself well, but the Cowboys are expected to add another boot at some point before camp concludes. With names like Mason Crosby and Robbie Gould still out there for grabs, it's entirely possible one of them (or someone we're not thinking of right now) gets flown out to Oxnard and challenges for the job. If so, Vizcaino will have his work cut out for him.
Kurt Daniels: A former soccer player, Brandon Aubrey's pro football experience has come helping the USFL's Birmingham Stallions to back-to-back titles while making 32 of 37 field goals and 57 of 59 extra points over those two seasons. Tristan Vizcaino has kicked in the NFL, but having had less success – good on 11 of 12 field goals and 15 of 20 extra point tries – Aubrey appears the favorite for Week 1 duties. Regardless, whoever wins will likely have a short leash. For a team in win-now mode, there will be some veteran kickers available if the Cowboys decide a change is needed.
Nick Eatman: I was dead wrong on this prediction last year on the same question, thinking that rookie Jonathan Garibay would be the guy all the way through and he didn't make it out of Oxnard. Honestly, it's not an easy place to kick especially when all of them will be charted and evaluated like these will be. The preseason games will be interesting at this position but at the end of the day – or end of camp – I just don't see the Cowboys putting all of their faith in an unproven player. They're going to have to be close to perfect to stick around. This is too good of a football team to take a chance at a position that is so crucial. I think they sign one of the veterans available before the first game.
