The Dallas Cowboys cut Brett Maher yesterday after the kicker continued to struggle all season long. Maher had made a habit of missing some crucial field goals and produced an abysmal 66.7% field goal percentage in 2019 despite being incredibly accurate on long kicks. The final straw for Maher may have been his costly mistake kicking the ball out of bounds at a key point in the game against Chicago this past Thursday which gave the Bears excellent field position. An extremely frustrated Jerry Jones, who has made several comments about his disappointment in his team, may have simultaneously been the reason Maher lasted so long as well as the catalyst for the change. For Cowboy fans, this move should have been made long ago but for the Cowboys front office it is just par for the course.
Brett Maher replaced Dan Bailey to begin last season and was serviceable. Maher had made some big time kicks but he had also missed some important ones as well. Maher has a big time leg, but for some reason he struggles at mid-range field goals and he did not consistently win touchbacks on kickoffs. For Dallas Cowboys fans, it was a no brainer that the coaching staff would bring in some competition in training camp to allow an opportunity for upgrade but that was not the case. When Maher struggled at times this season, the notion of making changes in the kicking game was quickly dismissed. Only recently, when Maher seems to have completely lost his confidence, did the front office finally pull the trigger and released Maher while signing veteran kicker Kai Forbath. Bringing in a new kicker at this point of the season left the Cowboys few options and it does not address the struggles on defense, consistency on offence, and all other aspects of the special teams. While Forbath is a much needed upgrade over the struggling Maher (at this point any kicker would be), once again it is too little, too late for the Dallas Cowboys.
This is a familiar pattern for Cowboys fans that has continued to plague the Cowboys organisation and extend the Super Bowl drought. The Dallas Cowboys cut Brett Maher about 4 months too late. Just as they will likely be about 5 years too late in firing Jason Garrett at the end of the season. Moreover, Jerry Jones frustration with the on the field product is about 25 years too late as well. The time for patience has passed and the time for urgency is now. Changes are necessary. No just coaching changes, but personnel changes, and more importantly culture change needs to be implemented swiftly in 2020 or I am afraid it will be another case of too little, too late.
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
**All data and statistics obtained and verified through https://www.pro-football-reference.com/