Cowboys Finally Taking Seriously Workouts to Replace Kicker Brett Maher (And His Pillow)

While Brett Maher's Head Rests Oh-So-Comfortably On His Pillow, The Dallas Cowboys Are Finally Taking Seriously Workouts to Possibly Find His Replacement

FRISCO - Brett Maher insists that his head has been resting comfortably on his pillow despite his myriad of kicking problems. And what of Dallas Cowboys management's heads? On Monday, they will finally pull them out of the sand.

Kai Forbath, Tristan Vizcaino and Nick Rose will try out on Monday here at The Star, as first reported by Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News -- and the presence of Forbath in that group elevates this workout above the facade that it has recently been.

Maher has 10 missed field goals this year, including a 42-yard failure in a 31-24 loss to the Bears on Thursday that also included a botched kickoff. After the game, Maher issued to us an absurdly tone-deaf fake-confident statement, claiming, “I hit every ball pretty well tonight. I’ll put my head on the pillow tonight feeling good about I did this week. I feel good.”

The Cowboys knew that wasn't even true before the Chicago trip, which is why they recently conducted tryouts for kickers Vizcaino, Rose and Austin MacGinnis.

The problem with those sessions? Rose has some tiny NFL credentials. The University of Texas product, 25, is trying to sign with his eighth NFL team. In one partial NFL season, he's 11-of-14 with a long of 55. But MacGinnis, 24, and Vizcaino, 23, have so-far proven to be XFL-level prospects.

“Well, the (tryout) kickers weren’t exactly kicking very good,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan. “It shows you why, when your kicker misses a field goal, you don’t go out on the street and get another one.”

Ah, but as we wrote in this space last week, as soon as Dallas hosts tryouts featuring Matt Bryant or Blair Walsh or Cody Parkey or Kai Forbath ... we'll take them seriously.

And now along comes Forbath, 32, who has obviously had a spotty career ... but he's also been-there/done-that, with 121 field-goal makes in 141 tries. Maybe Dallas will "discover'' something with one of the two other kids. But the Forbath presence is proof that Maher's whistling-past-the-graveyard confidence is fake. Because this Monday workout is for real.