I think our rookie TE is going to take a bit longer to make an impact than people on this board are predicting, but other than that I am also one of the people who is very excited about the pace of our offense and think Vegas is way, way off....
I almost think that Vegas must EXPECT Tannehill to be injured again, as that is the only thing I believe would actually cause us to be any worse than 8-8... with a bit of GOOD injury luck for once I can see this group going 10-6 and being a wildcard again...our pace at WR, RB and TE is very intriguing.
Curious about this idea. I'm not saying it's outlandish or anything. I see it a lot. It feels like the right thing to say. But what's the thesis behind it?
Just pull yourself back to the mile high view and this is a guy that played at Penn State, not Murray State. He's been playing football for them, as a tight end, for four years.
He caught 129 balls for 1,481 yards, and 15 TDs.
This is not the same profile as like a Jordan Cameron, who never really cracked the lineup at USC and was a wide receiver basically the whole time. It's not like with Julius Thomas who was a basketball player who played just a little bit of football at Portland State. Or even Antonio Gates or Jimmy Graham, both of whom were basketball players that had to learn football pretty much on-the-job.
Gesicki did things in that offense and in that playbook that translate to the NFL, too. In that way, it's not like a Michael Egnew, who had a very simple role in Mizzou's spread. And besides, we have to remember and properly attribute Egnew's failure in the NFL. He never "got" the playbook, or put the work in. I hesitate to say Egnew was dumb, because I don't know, but there was certainly something off about him.
Meanwhile, Mike Gesicki sees a whiteboard hanging out in Shane Day's office and is like, "Hey can I take that back to the hotel so me and Durham can quiz each other?" The commitment is certainly there.
I often have a different perspective when it comes to the question of whether guys will make an early impact or not. I say that the ones who are physical dynamos have a better chance of doing that, even if they're a little bit "raw", because their physical dynamism is something you don't have to WAIT for to translate, and so smart coaches can find the ways that fits into their offense and the things they can ask that player to do. They can point him in the direction of where he can win.
Well, you don't get much more physically impressive than this:
- Height (6'5.5") vs TEs: 78th percentile
- Weight (247 lbs)vs TEs: 21st percentile
- Wingspan (6'10.1") vs TEs: 90th percentile
- Arm Length (34.1") vs TEs: 84th percentile
- Hand Size (10.25") vs TEs: 78th percentile
- Bench Press (22 reps) vs TEs: 65th percentile
- Vertical Jump (41.5") vs TEs: 98th percentile
- Broad Jump (10'9") vs TEs: 96th percentile
- Cone Drill (6.76s) vs TEs: 98th percentile
- 20 Yard Shuttle (4.10s) vs TEs: 95th percentile
- 60 Yard Shuttle (11.33s) vs TEs: 96th percentile
- 40 Yard Dash (4.54s) vs TEs: 92nd percentile
I guess the idea behind him taking a long time is because he's a bad blocker. But that's why the above is interesting because let's just change some things up a little bit and compare him to
wide receivers:
- Height (6'5.5") vs WRs: 97th percentile
- Weight (247 lbs)vs WRs: 99th percentile
- Wingspan (6'10.1") vs WRs: 99th percentile
- Arm Length (34.1") vs WRs: 96th percentile
- Hand Size (10.25") vs WRs: 93rd percentile
- Bench Press (22 reps) vs WRs: 95th percentile
- Vertical Jump (41.5") vs WRs: 97th percentile
- Broad Jump (10'9") vs WRs: 91st percentile
- Cone Drill (6.76s) vs WRs: 79th percentile
- 20 Yard Shuttle (4.10s) vs WRs: 76th percentile
- 60 Yard Shuttle (11.33s) vs TEs: 64th percentile
- 40 Yard Dash (4.54s) vs WRs: 37th percentile
If he were just a straight up wide receiver, one coming out of a program like Penn State with four years of experience, a 75% contested catch rate, only one drop for every 20.0 catchable passes his senior year, a touchdown every 8.8 targets as a senior...my goodness, you'd be falling over yourself to draft him in the 1st round.
I mean, Matt Jones went in the 1st round and I think he had 4 catches coming out of school.
Remember Jimmy Graham as a rookie? He barely even knew the rules of the game, and he caught 5 touchdowns. Wasn't that supposed to take a long time?
Really I think we should be looking at Mike Gesicki as being AT THE WORST a Coby Fleener. But he has more in common with Jimmy Graham than Fleener. His weight (247 lbs) and pure muscle aren't quite what Graham's were (260 lbs). But the frame, the way he moves, and the explosive qualities are the same as Graham's. The finishing dominance and the leaping are the same as Graham's, and that's the thing that seems to be missing with Fleener, who moves a bit more like a Corvette, hugging the road.
Some people are actually thrown off BECAUSE Gesicki doesn't move like that, like a Coby Fleener. He's more legs and arms and sometimes giraffe-like awkwardness. But that's actually what you want at the position because it's a position where you need physicality and finish dominance.
Rather than thinking about him as a guy that will take a while to get acclimated...which feels like the right thing MOSTLY because of his lack of blocking skills...I wonder if we aren't looking at the perfect storm of a guy that dominates immediately.
1) Physical dynamo, which as I said often plays EARLY because it's like a gun that a smart coach knows where to point.
2) Traits that translate, all those legs and arms, ball skills, the LEAP skills, FINISHING dominance.
3) Comes from a major program, nothing is too big for him, which may well feed into the commitment level we're already seeing out of him.
4) Wasn't operating necessarily out of one of those tough to translate Air Raid systems; did things he'll do in the pros.
5) Went straight to a coach that loves Y-ISO and has been desperate to find a player like him.
6) Also went to an offense that just lost a 10 target per game player who dominated the middle of the field, looking to fill that void.
7) The franchise quarterback has already shown an unusual interest in him.
8) Playing for a coach that doesn't really love running the ball anyway, so does he care about blocking? Gase already stated emphatically he's impressed enough with Gesicki's blocking that he WILL stay on the field in goal line.
