Brett Maher

BIOGRAPHY

Brett Maher was born November 21, 1989, in Fremont, Nebraska. He is a kicker in the
NFL. Maher turned down other football scholarship offers to walk on at the University of Nebraska. As a redshirt freshman and as a sophomore, he appeared in all games as the holder for field goals and extra points, while also serving as the backup punter behind Alex Henery.
As a junior, he was named the starter at placekicker and punter after Henery graduated. He made 19-of-23 field goals, 43-of-44 extra points, and averaged 44.5 yards per punt (sixth in school history). He received Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors three times while being named Eddleman-Fields Big Ten Punter of the Year and Bakken-Andersen Big Ten Kicker of the Year. He became one of the few specialists in Big Ten history to be named All-Conference both at kicker and punter in the same season.
As a senior, the school awarded him with a football scholarship. He made 20-of-27 field goals, all of his 59 extra-point attempts, 57 touchbacks out of 96 kickoffs, and averaged 41.8 yards per punt. His 20 field goals ranked second in school history for a season, and his 119 points set a record for most points scored by a kicker. He ranked third overall in the conference in scoring and first among kickers. He received the Bakken-Andersen Big Ten Kicker-of-the-Year Award for the second straight year.
He finished his career with 39-of-50 made field goals (78%), 219 points, 120 punts for a 43.2-yard average, and 43 punts inside the 20-yard line. Maher was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets after the 2013 NFL Draft on May 12, earning the contract following a rookie minicamp tryout. He was waived on July 23, to make room for placekicker Billy Cundiff. On August 11, 2013, Maher was signed by the Dallas Cowboys, to play in the preseason while Dan Bailey recovered from an injury. He was released two weeks later on August 27. On March 20, 2017, Maher signed with the Cleveland Browns. On May 2, he was released after not being able to pass rookie Zane Gonzalez on the depth chart. On April 4, 2018, Maher signed with the Dallas Cowboys, to limit the off-season workload of Dan Bailey. He was 4 out of 5 field-goal attempts in preseason, which included two 45-yarders and a 57-yard field goal. On September 1, in a surprise move, the Cowboys released Bailey, making Maher the team's kicker to start the season. His NFL debut came in the season opener against the Carolina Panthers, where he missed his first career field goal attempt (47 yards). He would then go on to make fifteen straight field goal attempts. In 2019, Maher struggled with his accuracy during the preseason, but the team showed confidence in his ability by not bringing another kicker to compete with him. On October 13, in a loss against the New York Jets, Maher became the first kicker in NFL history to have two made field goals of 62 or more yards in a career. On October 6, he made one out of 3 field-goal attempts against the Green Bay Packers. On December 31, 2019, the Jets signed Maher to a reserve/futures contract and was waived on August 31, 2020.
Maher signed with the practice squad of the Washington Football Team on September 10, 2020, before being released on September 30, 2020. On October 12, 2020, Maher was signed to the Houston Texans' practice squad. He was released on December 14, 2020. On December 25, 2020, Maher was signed to the Arizona Cardinals practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract on January 5, 2021. On March 20, 2021, Maher was waived by the Cardinals.