There comes a point when you have to quit talking about how much talent a team has and start asking, when is that talent going to show up?
For the New York Mavericks, maybe that point came in Austin.
New York joined the league as an expansion franchise in 2024 and went 11-17 during its inaugural regular season. In 2025, the Mavericks slipped to 9-26. Through five stops in 2026, they sat at 3-11, bringing their combined regular-season record since joining the league to 23-54.
There is no way to sugarcoat that.
But there is also no way to look at this roster and convince me New York doesn’t have enough talent to be dangerous.
Hudson Bolton finished the 2026 individual season No. 3 in the world after battling injuries and competing in only 10 Unleash The Beast events. Then he caught fire when it mattered most, starting the PBR World Finals a perfect 7-for-7, extending his streak to 14 consecutive qualified rides to tie a PBR record and ultimately finishing 7-for-9 to win the 2026 PBR World Finals event title.
Leandro Zampollo finished No. 9. Steelville, Missouri’s Bob Mitchell provided veteran leadership. And Marco “Money Man” Rizzo entered the Teams season as the 2026 PBR Rookie of the Year.
So how in the world does a team with that much individual talent find itself sitting at the bottom of the league?
That’s the million-dollar question.
Injuries and unavailable riders have certainly played their part. Maybe some bull assignments haven’t matched up the way New York hoped. Maybe certain rider-bull combinations simply haven’t worked.
Or maybe it has simply taken longer than expected for a collection of talented individual bull riders to find their stride together.
Whatever the answer is, something looked different in Austin.
ONE GREAT NIGHT ISN’T A STREAK
New York has shown flashes before.
Last October, the Mavericks made franchise history when they produced their first perfect game against Nashville, filling all five scoring frames for 432 points. A reride meant New York actually recorded six qualified rides during the game, but the official team result remained a perfect 5-for-5.
It showed everybody what this team could look like when everything clicked.
The problem was doing it again.
And again.
That’s what winning teams do.
New York’s first victory of 2026 came Aug. 7 at Freedom Days when the Mavericks went 4-for-5 and stunned Texas 348.70-91.35.
Then came six straight losses.
By the time New York stepped onto the dirt Saturday night at Gambler Days, the Mavericks weren’t trying to build a winning streak.
They were trying to stop a losing one.
Leonardo Castro finally got them moving when he covered Dirty South for 86.30 points, with the bull marked 42.40. Then Rizzo delivered when New York needed him, exploding for 90.20 points aboard Freedom Fighter, who was marked 44.05.
Oklahoma answered with Eduardo Matos’ 87.90 points aboard Bullistic, but New York walked away with a 176.50-87.90 victory.
Six straight losses were over.
But one win still wasn’t a streak.
Then came Sunday.
Mauricio Gulla Moreira got the party started with 90.75 points aboard Black Eyes.
Kansas City’s Koltin Hevalow answered with the Outlaws’ lone qualified ride, an 89.20-point effort aboard Dirty Honey.
New York answered right back.
Zampollo covered The Heat for 88.95 before Rizzo finished the job with 87.70 aboard El Chapo.
New York 267.40. Kansas City 89.20.
Just like that, the team that entered Saturday carrying six consecutive losses left Austin carrying something it hadn’t had all season.
A winning streak.
Two in a row.
It doesn’t sound like much until you remember where this team has been.
AND THEY DID IT WITHOUT TWO OF THEIR BIGGEST WEAPONS
Mitchell, the 2022 PBR Rookie of the Year and one of the Mavericks’ most consistent riders, has been sidelined with injuries.
Then there is Bolton.
Bolton’s story is a little different because he has been chasing something virtually every bull rider dreams about.
He wants all three:
A PBR World Finals title.
A PBR Teams Championship.
And a Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Average title.
Bolton has competed on all three of those stages. Now he wants all three titles.
His pursuit of those goals has also meant New York has had one of the best young bull riders in the world available only once thus far during the 2026 Teams season.
Take Mitchell out at the same time and now you’re asking everybody else to carry more of the load.
That’s why Austin mattered.
New York didn’t sit around waiting for Bolton or Mitchell to come save them.
The guys who were there went to work.
Castro, Moreira and Zampollo all answered.
And on both nights, Rizzo answered.
The 2026 PBR Rookie of the Year looked every bit like the Money Man when New York needed him.
Now imagine what happens if Mitchell gets healthy and Bolton returns while the rest of this lineup is beginning to figure things out.
That’s where this gets interesting.
DON’T FORGET WHAT HAPPENED IN 2022
I’m not calling New York a championship team.
Not yet.
At 3-11, they’ve got entirely too much work left to do for anybody to start making reservations for a championship celebration.
But if we’ve learned anything since this league began, it’s that you better be careful burying somebody before Las Vegas.
Remember 2022?
There were only eight teams then.
Nashville finished dead last in the inaugural regular season at 7-20-1. Worst team in the league.
Then the Stampede went to Las Vegas and apparently forgot they were supposed to be the worst team.
They went 4-0 when everything mattered and walked out as the inaugural PBR Teams Champion.
Worst to first.
I’m not saying New York is going to do the same thing.
I’m saying somebody already proved it can be done.
And sometimes all a struggling team needs is something to make them believe.
Maybe Austin was that something.
The Mavericks have spent most of their existence trying to turn potential into results.
Stats can tell you what has already happened, but they can’t tell you what’s about to happen.
That’s why the next few weeks may tell us more about New York than the previous two-and-a-half seasons combined.
Can two straight become three?
Can three become four?
Can Moreira and Zampollo continue bringing their individual-season success into the five-man game?
And has Rizzo, fresh off becoming the 2026 PBR Rookie of the Year, started becoming the closer New York needs him to be?
Maybe Gambler Days was nothing more than one good weekend.
Maybe New York goes right back to struggling and we’re talking about the same problems a month from now.
But maybe not.
Because four years ago, another team sat at the very bottom of the standings and nobody had much reason to believe in them, either.
Then Nashville went to Las Vegas.
And everybody knows what happened next.
New York has a long, long way to go before anybody should start talking about repeating that history.
But for the first time this season, the Mavericks have given us a reason to wonder.
They entered Saturday having lost six straight.
They left Austin having won two straight.
And suddenly, the worst team in the league doesn’t look quite so dead anymore.
Maybe the Concrete Cowboys have finally found their fight.