Tag: durham smythe

Mike Gesicki is campaigning for Durham Smythe to get extended by Miami

What a guy Mike Gesicki is.

Sunday was a great day for the Dolphins’ tight ends despite two questionable offensive pass interference penalties.

The trio of Mike Gesicki, Durham Smythe, and Adam Shaheen accounted for 10 receptions for 106 yards during the 24-17 victory of the New York Jets. Smythe’s day (four receptions for 37 yards) set a new single-season high for him with 221 receiving yards and counting on the year.

Gesicki went into his Monday morning media availability with nothing but great things to say about his teammate.

“I thought to myself ‘Wow, Durham went over his career yardage yesterday, has a new career-high,'” Gesicki said. “‘I’m going to wear his jersey to my press conference today. Start an 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, blocking, receiving.'”

With Gesicki dealing with his own contract situation right now, it’s interesting to see him so invested in his teammate’s happiness and success. He’s even trying to get him into the Pro Bowl.

“He’s not even on the Pro Bowl ballot,” Gesicki said. “That’s another thing. Just get him on there. I gotta get in touch with NFL.com maybe we can get him on there, and I’ll vote for him.”

This is the type of leadership and attitude the Dolphins should want to build around.

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C Greg Mancz and TE Durham Smythe questionable to return vs. Texans

Both could return at some point.

The injury problems continue for the Miami Dolphins who are missing multiple key players for their Week 9 matchup with the Houston Texans.

During the first quarter of Sunday’s game, the Dolphins saw both center Greg Mancz and tight end Durham Smythe leave the field with injuries. Mancz’s injury is an ankle while Smythe is dealing with an eye issue.

In the meantime, Smythe’s role will be taken on by Mike Gesicki and Adam Shaheen who are the top two tight ends on the roster, and Mancz will be replaced by Austin Reiter who started last week.

Both players could return to action at some point during the game, as both of their statuses are questionable.

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Watch: Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins dupe Chargers’ defense on TD pass

Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins with the great fake on a TD pass.

The Miami Dolphins are on a roll. Rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has stepped in for Ryan Fitzpatrick and kept the team winning.

On Sunday, the former Alabama star and his teammates made the Chargers look silly with a great fake and throwback to Durham Smythe for the touchdown. There was no one in the same area code as Smythe when he caught the pass that made it 26-14 in the fourth quarter.

In case you were wondering, Smythe played college ball at Notre Dame and had 20 career catches coming into this game.

Notre Dame in the NFL: Highlights and photos of week 9’s action

It wasn’t a standout week 9 for former Irish stars, but there were still some impressive performances from this weeks NFL action. Check out below and see pictures and highlights of the best performances from former Notre Dame Football standouts. ND

It wasn’t a standout week 9 for former Irish stars, but there were still some impressive performances from this weeks NFL action. Check out below and see pictures and highlights of the best performances from former Notre Dame Football standouts. ND

Latest illustration of Dolphins’ team culture should have fans excited

Latest illustration of Dolphins’ team culture should have fans excited

Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki would describe fellow tight end Durham Smythe as his best friend on the team. It makes sense, given that Smythe and Gesicki have been with the Dolphins for several seasons now and as two players at the same position, they are around each other all the time. The teammates are committed to improving one another’s craft together and share the same aspirations for the gridiron.

So when Smythe scored his first career NFL touchdown on Sunday against the New York Jets, you figured Gesicki would be amped up and excited for his best friend. But not like this! Gesicki’s excitement, which was showcased by the Dolphins on Monday morning after the win, shows a terrific example of Miami’s team-first culture and the excitement for winning: no matter who is doing the scoring.

You’d have thought Miami just scored the game winning touchdown of the Super Bowl with how excited Gesicki was for his best friend’s touchdown. And while we certainly don’t expect that level of excitement from all 53 players on the team any time Miami finds the end zone, this kind of reaction is certainly a byproduct of what Brian Flores and the rest of the Miami Dolphins have been trying to build.

Hopefully Smythe’s next career touchdown comes sooner rather than later. But no matter when it comes, you can rest assured to know that at least one man, Mike Gesicki, is going to be super fired up to see it.

Notre Dame in NFL: Watch – Durham Smythe’s first professional touchdown

Tight End U was at it again in the NFL as Durham Smythe found the end zone for the first time in his professional career.

Durham Smythe is in the middle of his third season in the NFL, all of which have been spent with the Miami Dolphins.

The former Notre Dame tight end did something Sunday he had not yet done in his NFL career:

Catch a touchdown pass.

Leading the lowly Jets 14-0 just before halftime, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick found a wide open Smythe to stretch the Dolphins lead to 20.

Smythe and the Dolphins wound up winning the game 24-0 and improved to 3-3 while the Jets remain winless at 0-6.

ESPN updates Position U’s, Find out where Notre Dame landed

The Irish place very well inside the updated rankings, but not quite where you would expect them to.

Now that NFL training camps have started back up, we are all getting a look at some teams roster constructions. With that, ESPN has updated their Position U rankings after gathering data from their Sports and Information group along with numbers from Pro Football Reference.

The Irish have placed in their rankings, although not in the top spot for any positions. Notre Dame placed 9th in Wide Receivers, 5th in Tight Ends and 7th in Offensive Line groups. It might seem like the analysts at ESPN got some of the rankings wrong, especially at tight end, but they do give some sound reasoning.

They did not mention much at ball regarding the production of former Irish wide receivers, but the group is very solid. Golden Tate, Will Fuller, Equanimeous St. Brown, Miles Boykin and Chase Claypool make up a fantastic collection of Notre Dame alumni receivers. Claypool has been shown very well so far and that ranking could be on the rise from 9th.

This next group, the tight ends, seems a bit low given the production from the group has been top-notch. The top spot went to Miami, the U, who boasts an quite a lot of quality players, as they have had 10 drafted in the last 20 years, with half of them going in the first round. They note that the Irish have “Cole Kmet was the first tight end taken in this years draft, and the Irish have had a tight end selected for three straight years.” Alize Mack and Durham Smythe were those two other players. As we know the position is stacked right now with tons of talent, but it’s hard to argue with Miami production the last 20 years. All time is a different conversation, however.

The offensive line helped the Irish get to 7th, but that ranking also could be on the move upwards as ESPN ranked them as who’s next. “There’s a strong case to be made that Notre Dame has produced the NFL best current tackle (Ronnie Stanley) and guard (Quenton Nelson) over the past five drafts. Add in Pro-Bowler Zach Martin, and NFL starters Nick Martin and Mike McGlinchey, and what the Irish might lack in quantity, they more than make up for in quality.”

The Irish didn’t make the defensive line group’s rankings but the did make their who’s missing. ESPN noted that “the Irish failed to produce a true impact player at the next level.” This is an area where an improvement is drastically needed.

As a whole collective group, the Irish did great inside the updated Positional U rankings. The upside is there for movement in the future and could very well be happening.

Miami Dolphins 2020 training camp preview: Tight Ends

Miami Dolphins 2020 training camp preview: Tight Ends

In just over three weeks, the Miami Dolphins will open training camp for the 2020 season ahead — and with it face the prospect of building upon a promising “foundation” year in 2020. The Miami Dolphins surprised everyone last season with a 5-4 stretch to finish the season and promptly followed suit by nailing down one of the most prolific college quarterbacks in recent history, plus a slew of new faces to add to the team.

The Dolphins will hold camp this year with fan enthusiasm as high as it has been in quite some time. But amid the restrictions of this offseason due to the ongoing health crisis, can the Dolphins rise to the challenge? We’ll be taking a look at each position group for the Miami Dolphins ahead of the start of training camp and exploring which storylines are most pressing to monitor as the Dolphins look to improve in year two under Brian Flores.

Here are the Dolphins’ key storylines in training camp at the tight end position.

Can Mike Gesicki repeat or improve upon 2019?

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The explosion from Mike Gesicki over the second half of the 2019 season surely allowed many Dolphins fans to let out a big sigh of relief. Gesicki was bad as a rookie in 2018, but a competent coach seems to have put him in a much better position to have success moving forward. The challenge now is that the Dolphins have remodeled their offense once again in 2020 with new play caller Chan Gailey.

Tight ends have not been a staple of his passing games in recent years, but then again Gailey hasn’t really had many good ones to work with. Gailey typically sees to it that his best targets get the majority of the looks in the passing game — so if Gesicki is the second-best target this season for Miami he should get the opportunity to follow up 2019’s success.

Or so we hope.

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Notre Dame is Not named Tight End U?!?

A point system to establish Tight End U by 247Sports doesn’t have the Irish on top. Find out who was and where they placed Notre Dame.

Many of us have automatically assumed that every list that ranks collegiate tight ends always seems to have Notre Dame next to the number 1. Well, that wasn’t the case when 247Sports looked into the matter, in fact they named Iowa as Tight End U.

This is all based on what have you done for me lately, as Barton Simmons explains the timeframe is just for the last 5 years. A point system that awards a first round pick 7 points, a second rounder worth 6 and so on, saw the Irish finish with 11 points, good for a tie for 5th on their list.

With “just” 3 draftees in the last five years: Durham Smythe in the fourth round in 2018, Alize Mack in the seventh round last year, and Cole Kmet in the first round this past draft got the Irish to their somewhat disappointing ranking. The quantity is good however, as the Irish only trail Stanford with their four drafted players in the time span.

Simmons looks at this current unit and sees “some good tight ends left on the roster in Brock Wright and Tommy Tremble but true freshman Michael Mayer is the next guy that could sniff a first-round level career.” Although they weren’t named the best group in the last five years, the future looks bright when you also add in 2021 commit Cane Berrong to the lineage.

There is much debate when it comes to assembling these kinds of lists, arguments are surely to arise when trying to rank positional groups. The great news for the Irish is that these numbers should only improve within the next five years as the current and future group should continue the great tradition in South Bend.