With the Dallas Cowboys, major contract extensions have become common for high performers like Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and, most recently, Brandon Aubrey. But beyond guaranteed money, many deals also include a base-salary de-escalator clause that reduces earnings if a player skips the offseason program, and so does Aubrey’s contract. However, the Cowboys’ kicker managed to cut that penalty down to half of what it previously was.

“The last sticking point was the offseason training. De-escalator, it’s called,” Aubrey said on The Dumb Zone. “If you’re not there for 84% of OTA days, then they can take a sum of money away from you. Ours is $250,000. So, that one was less important to me, but more of a fight of precedent…It wasn’t important to me, so I was cool with conceding that.”

Aubrey’s comments came after Dallas made him the highest-paid kicker not just in the league, but in NFL history. His deal is a four-year, $28 million contract with $20 million guaranteed, keeping him with the team through the 2030 season.

The clause in his deal still carries a $250,000 penalty tied to offseason participation, but the figure wasn’t always that low. Aubrey pushed for it to be reduced, setting a different reference point for future negotiations.

It’s a situation we’ve already seen play out during the 2025 offseason. When Trevon Diggs signed his five-year, $97 million contract in 2023, it included a base-salary de-escalator clause. Under that clause, Diggs had to participate in 84.3% of the offseason program to avoid losing $500,000.

However, he was rehabbing from left knee surgery he underwent in January 2025, which had already cut his 2024 season short. Because of that, he missed the first two phases of the Cowboys’ offseason program, followed by the OTAs.

His contract specifically required him to rehab with the team medical staff to reach his attendance at the offseason program. Instead, Diggs remained in Miami, did not meet that requirement, and the whole situation blew up. As a result, he was docked $500,000 under the terms of the clause.

Aubrey went in with a different approach. The focus wasn’t on the money itself, but on setting a more manageable standard for future players negotiating similar terms. Cutting the penalty from $500,000 to $250,000 doesn’t change the rule. But it does establish a new baseline within the organization.

Inside Brandon Aubrey’s latest contract extension with the Cowboys

Brandon Aubrey made it clear that the Cowboys had presented him with a contract offer last year, one that was close to his current four-year, $28 million deal. However, the Cowboys declined the counteroffer, which led Aubrey to table negotiations until after the season. Following an efficient 2025 campaign, Dallas made him the highest-paid kicker in the league.

“It hasn’t sunk in just yet,” Aubrey said. “I do feel like a weight or stress deep down is gone. I’m able to kind of enjoy day-to-day life a little bit more again. … In the moment, (I felt) joy, excitement. I had been pushing to get it done as fast as we could, which isn’t the way a lot of agents like to do it. They want to slow play it and the teams like to slow play it.”

“I wanted both parties to kind of come to the table and get it done faster, and both parties were willing to do that. It’s just exciting to get it done before training camp, which is how a lot of these things seem to go, and I can actually have a moment at home with the family, enjoy it and start planning our lives.”

While there may be some skepticism about paying a kicker at that level, Aubrey has backed it up with performance. He has established himself as one of the most reliable kickers in the league. The kicker converted 112 of 127 field goal attempts, an 88.2 percent success rate. His range has also stood out, making 35 of 44 attempts from 50-plus yards.

So when he surpassed Ka’imi Fairbairn of the Houston Texans, whose two-year, $13 million deal previously set the benchmark for annual average, the move aligned with his production.