Mike Gesicki – January 5, 2022
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Wednesday, January 5, 2022
TE Mike Gesicki
(Would your hope be, now that the season is ending, to get a long-term deal with the Miami Dolphins? Obviously, they’ve got options with you, they could stick the franchise tag on you. Would the ideal scenario for you be a long-term deal with the Miami Dolphins?) – “I’m going to be completely honest with you, I haven’t thought about it this season. I kind of just let it all play out because it doesn’t matter how much I think about it or don’t think about it, it’s not really up to me. I just kind of go about my business and kind of let everything fall where it may. I do appreciate this organization. I’m happy where I’m at and I like the guys, like the locker room, like the coaches. I can go on and on about all the things I like. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”
(One last question on this topic. Were you ever – I don’t want to say feelings hurt because it’s a business – were your feelings hurt that two other members of the 2018 class were extended and you were not?) – “No. Absolutely not. I was happy for those guys. They put in a lot of work, they made of plays, they did what they had to do and they were rewarded for it. I’m happy for them. That’s just how it’s been.”
(In what areas are you most proud of your growth as a professional athlete, professional football player from start to now?) – “I think just kind of staying the course. It’s not – some guys get in the league and they take off and other guys fight through a little bit of adversity and you kind of learn, you grow, you realize what you’re not good at and you get better at those and you realize what you’re good at and you improve at those and you kind of excel in those areas. I think when I first got here in 2018, a lot of people were excited for the day that I wasn’t here anymore, so that was an interesting experience back during my rookie year. But here I am now in 2022 and it’s crazy. It goes quick. It goes fast but you learn a lot and I’ve enjoyed every single aspect of being in this organization. I had a lot of fun, won a lot of games, learned from a lot of games and I’m excited and grateful for another opportunity this upcoming Sunday.”
(What are the areas where you feel like you have made the most growth in you game? Congrats on your career year in receptions and yards. You pointed out TE Durham Smythe’s career year.) – “I mean Durham is still continuing (to add to his career highs).”
(I know, he’s still building on it.) – “I know. Although I did throw a much better ball than he would have ever thrown but we’ll leave that at that. I think the things in my game that I’ve gotten better from my first snap until today is just kind of being able to get off press coverage, being physical in route running, being able to fight through second-level releases and contact and things like that. I think anybody – not anybody but it takes a little bit of creativity and a special player to get open verses zone and find the special spots in zone. But when you can win versus man coverage whether it’s a corner or a safety – I don’t really see linebackers – but a corner or safety, nickel, or something like that, and you can go win in those situations, those are crucial downs, mostly third down stuff. That’s kind of where I excel in my role, in third down. I think in terms of route running and things like that, I think I’ve gotten a lot better and then just understanding the game, different coverages, how to run different routes versus different leverage and stuff like that.”
(I wanted to ask you also, the market. New England really set the market for tight ends. They did you guys a favor this offseason. Guys like Dallas Goedert and Mark Andrews made the bar rise. Do you feel like this is a great time to be a tight end?) – “Yeah, absolutely. I feel like there’s, I think I said it a couple of weeks ago, if you go out there and you make plays and you do what’s asked of you, then you get what you deserve. I think that you are entitled to what you deserve in this league and that’s what those guys have gotten and I’m happy for them. They continue to show it each and every week and they keep setting the bar high each and every week. I’m happy for them and their success and their bank accounts. (laughter) Good for them.”
(You had mentioned something earlier about your rookie season. If you want to call it fan perception, wanting you out of here or whatever you said. I found that interesting and I was curious, every year you’re going to have players on a team that come into a new team and maybe they struggle a little bit. I was curious if you ever approach those players in those situations and if you do, what’s that conversation like between you and those guys who maybe had the same type of path where it took a little while longer to get going?) – “Honestly, the only instance I can remember – and I never talk to people when they drop a ball or anything like that because it’s so cliché. People are like, ‘Oh, we got your back.’ I know I wanted to catch the ball. If you were in there, you would want to catch the ball. Nobody – like I get it. I’m ready for the next play too. So I never say anything to anybody when they drop the ball because when I was in college I had a couple drops and it was the most frustrating experience of my life. In the last preseason game this year against Cincinnati, I remember Hunter (Long) ran a flag and Reid Sinnett threw it up and it was a difficult catch, over the shoulder. To me, those are the hardest catches, over the shoulder. He didn’t come down with it. He came to the sideline and for like a split second he looked like it was over. I was sitting there and I didn’t say a word. I went up to him and ignored the fact that it happened and kept talking to him because I’ve been in that scenario before. Finally, I just said to him like, ‘Yo, I know what you’re thinking. It’s preseason three. You’re good. You are good. You are going to learn from this experience and then you are going to go make plays on Sundays.’ I think that was the one instance that stuck out to me. Now Hunter has done great things in practice, has got in and made the most of his opportunities in games and I’m excited for his future here in Miami. That’s just one small occurrence that kind of stuck out with me in terms of being a veteran and being through an experience like that.”
(Going back to your career growth, you talked about when you were fighting through that adversity as a rookie. If I had talked to you back then and gotten some truth serum and asked you where you would be in 2021, would you have envisioned that you would be where you are now as accomplished as you are now or not?) – “Yeah, absolutely. I think – I remember back then people talking about my confidence and things like that. I was never at a lack of confidence and in terms of my game. It was honestly a mixture of me not being – not prepared but being ready to go out and make these plays at this point because like I said, the things I have gotten better at like second-level releases, getting off press, using my hands, fighting through man-to-man coverage and things like that, that I wasn’t doing back then. And then just opportunity. I knew when I was put in the right situation, in the right gameplan and had the right opportunity around me, I was going to be prepared to make the most of my opportunities. I did all my JUGS back then, I did all my work back then and I stuck with it because I knew at some point the opportunity was going to come. But that’s the big thing, you’ve got to be ready when that opportunity comes and I think I was and made the most of it eventually in 2019 and now it all comes full circle.”
