When the Miami Dolphins turned to Tua Tagovailoa mid-way through the 2020 NFL season, the offense was met with irregular results. But one of the few consistencies throughout the back half of the year was that Tagovailoa has a firm connection with his tight end, Mike Gesicki.
They say that a good tight end is a young quarterback’s best friend — and Gesicki proved to be that for Tagovailoa in 2020. But the chemistry between the two feels ready to take a step forward this year, even if the number of targets Gesicki sees dwindles a bit due to a more dynamic supporting cast. Because while Tagovailoa clearly trusted the former Penn State product to make a play, the duo is building upon that trust to create a more fluid and flexible plan of attack.
Gesicki met with the South Florida media on Thursday and was asked about what Tagovailoa is doing differently in Year 2 to offer more “little things” to help the offense in 2021.
“In terms of that kind of stuff, the thing that Tua has done this year – him and I – we kind of on special teams periods, I’ll get together with him and just go get a couple extra reps. Like ‘hey, this is how I see this route right here.’ This is how I think they’re going to cover you here.’ And we just kind of go through the timing and get that chemistry down and I think that is just a bonus and to sit there rather than, ‘all right, they put the install up and this is this play and this is this stencil, this is how…’ He says, ‘all right, I understand this is the route, but hey, if you’ve got to cut this short because I’m getting pressure or hey, we’ve got this leverage and you’ve got to bend it here, that’s okay.’,” said Gesicki.
“So I think just going through it and talking through it with him and you can kind of see his confidence this year compared to last year just because you get that year under your belt and he has that knowledge of the game and kind of just talking through things. It’s been very productive.”
This is music to the ears of Gesicki fantasy owners and Dolphins fans everywhere. Tagovailoa was charged with processing a new offense in 2020 and it did admittedly feel as though the offense was too ‘rigid’ with the rookie at the helm. Some of that comes back to Tagovailoa’s admission that he didn’t have the best grasp on the offense. And a lot of it comes from trying to master the concepts in a black and white frame of mind — not what Gesicki says Tagovailoa is doing this year; which is embracing a non-cookie cutter approach to each concept.
And with that in mind, it’s hard to imagine the chemistry between this duo not taking another step forward in 2021.