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Brandon Aubrey #17 of the Dallas Cowboys

OK, so it might not have gone exactly as expected for star Dallas Cowboys  kicker Brandon Aubrey, but at least it’s done now. Aubrey has established himself as one of the best kickers in the NFL, if not the best in the league, and with an increased role because of changes to league rules, he appeared poised to cash in on a major payday–according to the Dallas Morning News, he was seeking $10 million per year, nearly double the previous record for kicker contracts.

But once a deadline passed last week for outside teams to make offers to Aubrey, he lost most of the leverage he might have had on the Cowboys, who had given him a $5.7 million second-round tender, a deal that clearly shortchanged the kicker. Once there was no ability to garner another offer, Aubrey’s choice was to play on the one-year tender, or accept the Cowboys’ previous offer of just less than $7 million per year.

Aubrey’s camp got the Cowboys to bump it up to $7 million AAV, and he took the deal, a record-setting four-year, $28 million contract.

Brandon Aubrey Did not Get the $40 Million He Sought

It’s not the $40 million Cowboys contract that Aubrey had originally asked for, but as he explained this week, the goal was to simply set a high bar and work from there. He knew that if another team would not make him an offer–not only would the new team have to pay Aubrey, but they’d have to send a second-round pick to Dallas if the Cowboys did not match–he did not have much leverage.

“Having never been through this process before, you need to explore all avenues,” he said. “The idea is to use another team to negotiate for the Cowboys since the Cowboys aren’t really incentivized to go raising the money since they own my rights for at least one more year. You start really high with the Cowboys before the window opens. And if they’re willing to meet that really high number, you take it. If not, then you explore your options and go from there.”

Cowboys Negotiations Tend to Go Public

In the end, the Cowboys and Aubrey have gotten what they wanted, a long-term continuation of their relationship. Aubrey–a pickup from the USFL after his soccer career fizzled–has a powerful and consistent leg, having made 112 out of 127 field goals in his three seasons in Dallas, including 35-for-44 from beyond 50 yards.

Aubrey became a little more famous than he would have liked throughout the negotiations, which is just part of dealing with a contract with the Cowboys.

“The process, I wasn’t quite ready for it to go public. Obviously you’re talking about very little details kinda leaking out,” Aubrey said. “Not sure from where, but at that point, the noise got very loud for me and Jenn personally and we couldn’t really open our phones without really being bombarded from one source to the other. It was just try to leave the pressure out there, made a couple of small comments, or [social media] post, let our side of the story have a little air and then accomplish what we were looking for.”