The Miami Dolphins were surely thrilled to see former 2nd-round draft pick Mike Gesicki break out in a big way in 2019. After an underwhelming start to his career under the watch of former head coach Adam Gase, the Dolphins were much more sufficient in putting Gesicki in positions to be successful under the watch of Brian Flores — and he rewarded the team with a much better season in the passing game.

Just how good was Mike Gesicki in 2019?

He turned in one of the best statistical seasons for a tight end in franchise history, for starters. The tight end position isn’t one that has yielded loads of production over the years despite the modernization of the position and improved output from receiving targets at the position.

And Gesicki’s 2019 campaign is one of just seven individual seasons for Miami Dolphins tight ends that successfully logged in excess of 500 yards receiving and at least 5 touchdowns. Here’s the full list:

1. Charles Clay (2013): 759 yards, 6 touchdowns
2. Keith Jackson (1994): 673 yards, 7 touchdowns
3. Keith Jackson (1993): 613 yards, 6 touchdowns
4. Keith Jackson (1992): 594 yards, 5 touchdowns
5. Randy McMichael (2005): 582 yards, 5 touchdowns
6. Larry Seiple (1969): 577 yards, 5 touchdowns
7. Mike Gesicki (2019): 570 yards, 5 touchdowns

If there’s progression for Gesicki from year two to year three, we may well end up seeing the best single season for a Miami Dolphins tight end yet. And, considering how young and athletic the former Penn State target is, there’s optimism that we can get there — even if new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has not traditionally made the most of tight ends in his passing offense. A bigger trend than tight end numbers is that the best players get the football the most — and Gesicki is the team’s second best option in the passing attack for the upcoming 2020 season.

You’ll often hear coaches in every sport preach about the process. Staying focused on the day to day and the task at hand is the best way to get the end result you want — and the moment your attention shifts to the final product prematurely, that is the exact moment you’ll lose your momentum. Keeping your eyes in the right place is key for athletes to build themselves up as both individuals and as a team.

You can count Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki among those disciplined enough to keep his head down and embracing the daily grind. Gesicki, who enjoyed a breakout 2019 campaign with the Dolphins under head coach Brian Flores, is looking to roll his momentum through to a new year despite a slew of changes to the Dolphins’ landscape; most notably the team offensive system. Tack on the contract restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and it would be easy to point out the challenges in prepping for a new offense — yet Gesicki is taking those dynamics in stride and focusing on what he can control.

“Everybody’s kind of doing these Zoom meetings, and everybody doesn’t have a new offense to learn; but we are installing a new offense and just kind of learning the ins and the outs. It’s been super productive to be on those Zoom meetings and be able to talk to our new offensive coordinator, Chan Gailey, and kind of be able to talk with ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick), being that he’s played in this kind of system before, and then being in our meetings with George Godsey, our tight ends coach,” Gesicki told the South Florida media on a Thursday conference call.

“He’s done a great job talking us through the run game, the pass game, our role in pass protections and run game – all the phases that come with playing tight end. Honestly, it’s been really productive and I think that a lot of guys have been able to grasp the information that’s thrown at them so far.”

Gesicki insisted that he’s not dialed into his individual production this season — instead he’s trying to stay active and make the most his preparations for this season despite the challenges at hand. And despite the lack of success from former tight ends of Chan Gailey in the past (Tony Gonzalez played one season under Gailey and was far and away the best single season a TE has produced on Gailey’s watch), the Dolphins tight end is confident that his opportunities will come to fruition as a byproduct of his day-by-day committed approach.

“Whatever scheme you’re in, whatever system you’re in, I think that you earn the opportunities that you’re presented with; so regardless of what the X’s and O’s are and the play calls and that kind of stuff, I think that what you do in practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and what you do in training camp or what you do before the game starts on Sunday, I think that those are the opportunities that you earn for yourself,” he said.

“I’m excited for whenever practice rolls around to just kind of go out there and kind of prove myself to a new offensive coordinator and a new guy calling the plays, because it’s exciting. As a competitor, it’s something I look forward to.”

Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki enjoyed a breakout over the team’s final 9 games that lived up to the expectation set in place when the team drafted Gesicki in the 2nd-round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Gesicki, who hadn’t found the end zone through his first year and a half as a Miami Dolphin, would go on to find the end zone five times over the team’s final 9 games and finished the year in excess of 50 receptions and a total of 570 yards through the air.

What contributed to the breakout?

Miami unlocked Gesicki’s potential by freeing him from the pass protection reps he was bogged down in throughout the course of the 2018 season and by finding a quarterback in Ryan Fitzpatrick that wasn’t afraid to through to Gesicki in tight man coverage. On those targets, Gesicki’s catch radius, length and ball skills all shined as he out-worked defenders up the seam to haul in passes and help create chunk plays for the Dolphins offense.

It was quite the relief after seeing Gesicki struggle so much early on in his career, but now the question becomes how high the ceiling is and how close can Gesicki get to in throughout the 2020 season?

He won’t be without challenges, as new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey’s offense hasn’t traditionally been one that feeds tight ends with regularity. There are few examples of Gailey’s horizontal spread concepts producing big numbers for the big guys at the position (the 2008 performance of Hall of Fame TE Tony Gonzalez is the lone exception), but Gesicki won’t necessarily need gaudy numbers to make a big jump. After finishing 12th among NFL tight ends in receiving yards last year, Gesicki would be well on his way to reaching his ceiling if he simply maintained his pace from the final 9 games of 2019 — his 741 yard pace over those 9 contests would have landed him 7th among NFL tight ends last season.

And his 5 scores over those final 9 games also project to 9 scores over the course of a 16 game sample size — which would have been good for tied for 4th among all NFL players last season.

We won’t need to see much more from Gesicki than what we saw in 2019 in order for him to fulfill his potential, we simply need to see that production sustained for a full season.

We all know that Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki has some serious bounce — he finally put things together during the final two thirds of the Dolphins’ 2019 season and started to apply some of his surreal athleticism to the gridiron. And before that, Gesicki nearly leapt out of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis at the 2018 NFL Combine en route to becoming a 2nd-round pick for the Dolphins in April of the same year.

But have you actually seen Mike Gesicki’s high school basketball highlights? If not, you’re in for one hell of a treat courtesy of the Dolphins and the highlights company Overtime, who reheated the highlight reel that will make your head spin.

Current Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki was a SICKO in HS hoops 🤯 @mikegesicki (via @MiamiDolphins) pic.twitter.com/iZWbr1m7Qc

— Overtime (@overtime) February 12, 2020

Um, what? How?

Gesicki’s dunks are one thing. They’re impressive and let’s be honest — 98% of us couldn’t hit one of those dunks if we walked out onto the street and tried it right now.

But the blocks? They’re almost more fun because of how quickly Gesicki emerges out of no where to slam shut the door on hopeful scorers. Come to think of it, it kind of reminds us of how Gesicki emerged out of no where to uncover in the end zone in the closing seconds of Miami’s Week 17 win over the New England Patriots.

Maybe it’s just us, though.

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