Mike Gesicki – November 29, 2020 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 29, 2020
Postgame – N.Y. Jets
TE Mike Gesicki
(I think there were several times throughout the TV broadcast where we could hear your vintage scream and celebrating on big catches, the touchdown. How happy were you to be out there with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick again?) – “Honestly just a good team win – guys making plays, offense moving the ball, defense was getting it back for us. So overall, happy to come back to Jersey where I’m from, win and help this team get a win. Now we go back to Florida, get out of this cold weather.”
(It’s a strange dynamic when you have an incumbent veteran quarterback and then a rookie first-rounder to take his place. How in the locker room have you handled this dynamic? QB Tua Tagovailoa’s ups, Tua’s downs, QB Ryan Fitzpatrick coming and going? What’s it been like trying to…?) – “Honestly you just got to roll with the punches and just keep going. You’ve just to follow whatever the coaches are putting the guys in position to be successful and no matter who’s in at quarterback – I think I said this – I don’t know if it was to you guys. This has kind of been – this is my third year – and every year I’ve played with several quarterbacks in a year. My rookie year, I played with a couple quarterbacks. Last year we rotated quarterbacks for a couple games. This year switching quarterbacks and a guy goes down, ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) comes back in; it just is what it is, so you just got to be ready to make the most of your opportunities when they come.”
(I had a question for you on the touchdown catch. It looked like the safety there tried to re-route you and you just kind of blew right through him. I was curious to get your own evaluation on your ability to kind of deal with contact at the NFL level from where you were as a rookie in Year 1 all the way up to Year 3 now and just catching touchdowns like that.) – “I think I’ve learned more about releases and using my hands, making moves on guys and not just trying to beat them with my speed because at this level everybody can run. So I knew that ‘32’ (Jets S Ashtyn Davis) was going to come down, try to get hands on me. It was Cover 0, there was nobody back there; so I knew if I just got his hands off me and (laughter) when we broke the huddle ‘Fitz’ said, ‘Mike, it’s coming to you no matter what.’ I said ‘okay.’ So when you hear that, you go out and make a play. I had to get his hands off me, I had to get open. I ran back, ‘Fitz’ threw the ball as high as the stadium – that thing was up there for it felt like a minute – and I just jumped up, caught it and you would have thought I caught the game-winning touchdown of the Super Bowl because I was so excited.”
(That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you about. Every time you score a touchdown I don’t know if you’re more excited than the next time you’ve done, but this one was definitely far more exciting. Just what did that mean to you to score in your home state?) – “It was cool. I was actually thinking about it afterwards. We played – when I was at Penn State, we obviously played Rutgers twice a year in Jersey, never scored. Played here at the Jets twice now, never scored; and now today, came back, got a win and got a touchdown back here in New Jersey so it was cool. It was fun. I just love catching the ball. I love catching the ball. I do so many extra drills and extra catches and extra this and that throughout the course of the week to put myself in position to make a play and catching a touchdown was great, but the thing I’m going to be thinking about tonight is I ran probably a 3-yard in – like a quick slant – and ended up not making the catch. So that’s the kind of thing that I’m thinking about right now is, ‘man, I had him.’ It’s a 3-yard catch, it’s not going to change the outcome of the game or anything like that, but to me, I just like to prove and show that when the ball comes my way, I have to come down with it no matter what the distance.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has the ability to [complete] a lot of plays that are 15+, 20+, a lot of those plays to you and also today to WR DeVante Parker. What is it about his approach to the game that enables that to occur?) – “I think with ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick), he knows what’s going to happen before it happens. So that was like today on my touchdown, he said, ‘hey, it’s coming to you regardless,’ so he knows what’s going to happen before it happens and he’s going to take chances. And a lot of people want to talk about ‘oh, he takes chances and that’s why he throws interceptions, this, that and the other thing.’ He’s been pretty damn good when he’s been taking chances at least wearing the Dolphins uniform. When you’ve got guys like DeVante (Parker) and you’ve got guys on the team like we have and you give us some chances – DeVante today, how many times are you going to play in man coverage? Like why are you doing that? Play Cover 2 or something else because DeVante is, he’s going to run, he’s going to get on the guy’s hip, the ball’s going to be back-shoulder, he’s going to catch it and he’s not going to say anything when he celebrates. He’s just going to shake his dead and do his thing like he does and that’s it. So DeVante is going to have his 8 (receptions) for 120 (yards) and we’re just going to go about our day.”
(I want to go back onto your touchdown. It looked like you were on the basketball court again trying to get position. What is about those – maybe like you said – those 50-50 balls that got those chances that you guys can connect with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and just have that sort of chemistry when that’s called?) – “I think that kind of goes back to what I’m saying. He kind of sees it before it happens, so he knows, ‘all right, this is going to be 0, I’m going to take my matchup that I like and I’m going to give him a chance.’ So then in my mind it’s like, ‘this is my shot.’ You go through all week of practice, you go through watching the film, you go through all the preparation for a couple opportunities on Sunday so when you get your shot, you go make it. So on those where it’s a high ball or it’s back-shoulder or where it’s a 50-50 ball; those are the things that I pride myself in just coming down with them, so I was happy to make the play for him, happy to make the play for the team and get the win and heading back to South Florida.”
