Mike Gesicki – November 22, 2021
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Monday, November 22, 2021
TE Mike Gesicki
(Every time that there is success on the first drive of every game, and then there is a little lull, fans like to say ‘it’s because the first drive is scripted, and the other drives aren’t.’ Is there any truth to that at all?) – “You really can only follow the script for so many plays. It’s like the first two or three plays. Then it could be third down, it could be a different part of the field where you weren’t anticipating being. The script only lasts for so long. That’s why the fans are where they are and our coordinators are where they are.”
(Is there any scripting for the second or third drive?) – “Yeah, there is. There is scripting for the first two drives. But it’s all dependent on – I mean you’ve got a script for the second drive, but you got a turnover and you’re in plus field position, now that changes how you’re going to call the game. There are a lot of things that go into it. It is what it is. I think we got into a groove a little bit in the first drive, got down there and scored a touchdown. I’ve said this before – these defenses are also getting paid a lot of money to play football and these coaches are also getting paid a lot of money to stop us from moving the ball. That’s how it happens in this league. I know everybody wants to see every drive end in a touchdown, but unfortunately that is not how this always happens.”
(You’ve consistently been a big defender of QB Tua Tagovailoa from all sorts of criticism that he’s faced. One of the things that people have said is ‘why isn’t he throwing the deep ball?’ Then yesterday he unloads a 65-yard touchdown pass. I’m wondering what you thought, and what the mood was of the team when he threw that bomb?) – “I was happy for him but at the end of the day, you don’t want to force a deep ball that’s not there to try to give people something to write about or people to be happy about. You’ve got to play within the gameplan and play within what the defense gives you. That’s really that. I’m not going to harp on it too much, but I talked to you guys in the spring and I told you guys what I thought about all of the criticism that he gets and all of that kind of stuff. That is what that is. I think he handles it great and yesterday was just another great example of that.”
(I’m sure you’d like to avoid any fines, if in fact they do fine players for criticizing officials. But did you get a helpful explanation relative to what you could’ve done differently or better in order to avoid two pass interference calls in five minutes?) – “When I was driving in this morning, I thought of two things when I was coming to this press conference. I knew that I was going to get asked the OPI call. I initially thought to myself ‘what can I say without getting in trouble?’ I’ll probably keep that to a small margin right there. The other thing I thought to myself was, ‘Wow, Durham (Smythe) went over his career yardage yesterday. He has a new career high so I’m going to wear his jersey in my press conference today and start the initiative to get him paid here by the Miami Dolphins.’ He’s a good player, has a lot of success, does a lot of things – special teams, offense, blocking, receiving. Did it take a trick play to get him an 18-yard catch? It sure did but nonetheless, nobody knows it on the stat sheet. An 18-yard catch is an 18-yard catch, which brings me back to your point – my 18-yard catch taken away which was obviously unfortunate. The refs were doing their job and I’m doing my job. We’re all allowed to agree to disagree and all of that kind of stuff I think that was another instance – I did talk to the ref after that play. I invited him to come to our film session today and we could discuss it. He said he watched it on the Jumbotron and got all of the film that he needed. Like I said, we’re able to agree to disagree and that was that.”
(TE Durham Smythe had a career high in what?) – “Yesterday he went over his season career-high in yardage. Last year he had 208 receiving yards on I think 26 catches maybe. Was the yards per catch great? No. But was the yards up there for him a career high? Yes. This year, with still six games left to go, he’s already exceeded that. I’m happy for him, so I figured I’d come in here wearing his jersey and give him a little boost. I know he wouldn’t do it for me, but I’ll do it for him. (laughter)”
(Are you kidding? He’s done nothing but campaign for you to get your money.) – “Absolutely. I know he’ll come in here and say it, but he probably won’t come in here and put on an 88 jersey. (laughter) But I’ll come in here and put on his jersey for him. I haven’t even seen him yet this morning. This was a, ‘Hey, good job Durham.’ We got home last night, went out to dinner at Louie Bossi’s, watched the game. We were having some fun, enjoying ourselves, congratulations Durham, we were talking about it and realized that he had a career high.”
(I didn’t even know. Thank you for creating that awareness for us.) – “That’s how this happens. See, Durham is a guy that goes under the radar and I’m just trying to elevate his – like he is not even on the Pro Bowl ballot. That’s another thing. Just get him on there. I’ll have to get in touch with NFL.com. Maybe we can get him on there. I’ll vote for him.”
(New tight ends are getting paid. I know you saw that TE Dallas Goedert contract. Thoughts?) – “Happy for him. Very happy for him. He’s a good player. I like Dallas a lot. I’ve met him a couple times, and I don’t have anything bad to say about him. He’s a good dude, great player and I think he got exactly what he deserved. We’ll see what happens”
(When you see tight ends raise the bar, you think what?) – “I like when people get what they deserve.”
(I take it based on what you started to mention a minute ago, TE Durham Smythe is unaware of your campaign?) – “Yeah. Yesterday he said ‘Yeah, you said I was slow last week. You said I ran a 4.9.’ I was like, ‘Bro it was a joke. Relax.’ So today, I figured I’d come in here and give him all of the praise and start his campaign to be a Miami Dolphin next year and moving forward. So Chris (Grier), if you’re listening, this is my campaign for Durham.”
(A few minutes ago, DT Christian Wilkins was talking about how the team wasn’t panicking when you were on the losing streak, which I can certainly appreciate. Was there a point where it crossed your mind about ‘Hey, the margin for error is really shrinking for us, if we want to make something of this season?’) – ‘Yeah, absolutely. I was coming into every postgame press conference telling you guys that we were close and we really were. To be honest with you, we’re still not playing our best football. But we’re making enough plays to come out on top. We’ve got six games left and say what you want, but I think what we want is still out there. You see each and every week that some teams go down and you’re shocked by it. This is a crazy league, so there is definitely an opportunity to still reach our goals as a team. We just take it day-by-day, week-by-week, and this week we’re on to the Carolina Panthers and have another opportunity.”
(What you want is still out there, so that raises the question, what do you want?) – “I’ve got to keep that internal. (laughter) We just want success. We want week-by-week success. I’m not going to put any expectations or big goals out there. We keep those internal because I feel like once you start saying stuff out loud, then the football gods work in an interesting way. We keep that to ourselves and let everything else handle itself.”
(I raised my hand before you referenced the football gods and I totally get that. But is it fair to say that the playoffs remain the main objective? It’s certainly not out of the question with the way you’re playing and with the schedule ahead.) – “I would say that for every team in the NFL, that is the objective. Then you just have to take it day-by-day, week-by-week, and go out there on Sunday and try to put another good week together and strive to reach our goals.”
