Dolphins’ Gesicki had chances to ‘go get it’ against the Jets. The result: A career game
It was a long time coming for Mike Gesicki. Twenty-three games had come and gone since the Miami Dolphins selected the pass-catching tight end in the 2018 NFL Draft.
His career numbers in that span: 37 catches. 355 yards. No touchdowns.
The marquee moment, the big game, the wow factor still had not been seen.
Sunday provided the first major sign of life from Gesicki since making his way to South Florida.
His first NFL touchdown may still elude him, but the breakout performance finally came Sunday in the Dolphins’ 26-18 win over the New York Jets at Hard Rock Stadium.
Gesicki set career highs with six catches and 95 yards.
“It’s just all about opportunities,” said Gesicki, a second-round pick out of Penn State in 2018 who never had more than four catches or 51 yards in a game with the Dolphins before Sunday’s win. “You just have to keep grinding at it and working at it every day and just knowing that whenever your opportunity comes you have to make the most of it.”
His biggest opportunity came late in the second quarter.
With the Dolphins holding on to a seven point lead, Gesicki blew past Jets linebacker James Burgess down the right sideline and caught a pass in stride from Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The final result: a 34-yard gain to get Miami into the red zone.
“I think the chemistry with me and Fitz goes well beyond the football field,” Gesicki said. “He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever been around. He helps me out a ton. On the field, he’s putting me in the right spot, telling me ‘Hey, be aware of this coverage.’ He’s seen so much football, so he knows what he’s talking about. I have a lot of trust in him. It’s good to have him. He’ll kind of put it out there and lets me go get it.”
Fitzpatrick added: “That’s the kind of stuff that we expect from him every week. He’s just got to continue to put in the work.”
The Dolphins scored their third touchdown of the second quarter four plays later when Fitzpatrick threw a 5-yard pass to Preston Williams.
The Dolphins went 5 for 5 on third down in that second quarter — Gesicki converted two of them and picked up 17 yards on a 2nd and 18 to make for an easy conversion for a third — while almost double up the Jets in yardage (144 to 76).
It allowed the Dolphins to enter halftime with a 21-12 lead.
“We knew some matchups that we wanted to be able to utilize,” Gesicki said. “We were efficient. We did what we had to do. Outside of that first drive, we had a really good rest of the first half.”
Thirty minutes of game action later, the Dolphins got their first win of the season.
“At the end of the day,” Gesicki said, “none of that matters if we don’t come out of here with a win.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2019 at 6:02 PM.
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