Mike Gesicki

More episodes

• Week 2Sep 21, 2026

  Mike Gesicki — Week 2: From Seven Targets to None

  Gesicki was active and was not targeted, a week after leading Cincinnati with 7 targets, 78 yards and a touchdown. Joe Burrow's 31 throws went 10 to Tee Higgins, 9 to Ja'Marr Chase and 3 to tight end Erick All, in a 20–6 win over the Texans.

• Week 1Sep 14, 2026

  Mike Gesicki — Week 1: Seven Targets, a Touchdown, the Third and Ten

  Gesicki led the Bengals with seven targets, caught five for seventy-eight yards, scored the two-yard touchdown on third and one in the first quarter, and made the twenty-four-yard catch on third and ten from the Cincinnati twenty-two that answered Tampa Bay's pick-six. His seven targets were worth plus six point nine expected points, the most of any receiver on either team, in a 33–27 win over the Buccaneers.

• Camp · Aug 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

  Mike Gesicki Camp Update — August 31: Five Tight Ends Kept Around Him

  Mike Gesicki made Cincinnati's initial fifty-three-man roster in a five-man tight end room: Gesicki, Drew Sample, Tanner Hudson, Erick All Jr. and rookie Jack Endries. The starters sat the finale, and no reporting describes All's workload in it.

• Camp · Aug 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

  Mike Gesicki Camp Update — August 23: Caught Burrow's Red-Zone Touchdown

  Mike Gesicki caught a red-zone touchdown from Joe Burrow in the joint practice against the Bears — and had a second Burrow throw glance off his fingertips for an interception. Meanwhile Erick All Jr., the one threat to his snaps June flagged, started Saturday's game.

• Camp · Aug 16, 2026Aug 17, 2026

  Mike Gesicki Camp Update — August 16: Silence From the Fourth Option

  No Mike Gesicki news this week — not in the preseason opener coverage, not in the camp reports. For a tight end whose ceiling is set by the two stars ahead of him, silence changes nothing about the June read.

• 2026 PreviewJul 3, 2026

  Mike Gesicki 2026 Season Preview — what repeats, what doesn't

  Gesicki finished as the TE40 across 12 games, averaging 4.7 half-PPR points per contest — a back-end production line consistent with his role as a tertiary option behind Chase and Higgins in Cincinnati's passing hierarchy. A season built largely around whatever targets Chase and Higgins didn't absorb is a volume-dependent story, and that volume ceiling is set by teammates rather than anything Gesicki controls.

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  Show notes & transcript

  Mike Gesicki is a back-end starting tight end in an offense that funnels everything to two of the best receivers in football — and the market prices him exactly for it, tight end 33, pick two-24. This is a short case about a fairly-priced role, and the one departure this offseason that gives it a sliver of upside.

  The season, on Half-PPR scoring: 12 games — a pectoral injury cost him a stretch in the middle of the year — 28 catches on 42 targets for 307 yards and two scores. 4.7 points a game, 30-sixth among tight ends per game, fortieth in total. 10 percent of Cincinnati's targets in his games and three-and-a-half looks a night, which is about what the fourth option in a Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins offense should expect.

  The career is a useful-but-capped tight end who has bounced between roles. A 65-catch, 665-yard season in 20-24 shows the ceiling when he is healthy and targeted; the years around it show a complementary piece, a move tight end who has never been the focal point of a passing game. He is what he is at this stage: a reliable outlet, not a driver. Deep into his career that is unlikely to change — this is a streaming tight end for the weeks he is healthy and the two stars pull the coverage, which is exactly how the market has him priced.

  The pattern beat says the volume is real and repeatable — tight end targets are the stickiest stat we track, point-seven-two and point-eight-oh across the two eras, on samples of 251 238 seasons — but stickiness cuts both ways, and what repeats here is a modest three-and-a-half targets a game. There is no year-over-year leap to price when two of the league's premier receivers are ahead of you in the pecking order.

  The situation is stability with one helpful subtraction. Zac Taylor stays as head coach and Dan Pitcher as coordinator — rare continuity in a year of coaching turnover across the league — so the scheme Gesicki knows is intact. Cincinnati re-signed him in March to a three-year deal, and Noah Fant left for New Orleans, which consolidates the receiving-tight-end work on Gesicki rather than splitting it. The offense still runs through Chase and Higgins, with Chase Brown catching passes out of the backfield; the returning Erick All, back from a knee injury on a timeline the beat calls uncertain, is the one real threat to Gesicki's snaps.

  The price: tight end 33 at pick two-24. The slot paid 5.4 a game; he produced 4.7. Our verdict: no call. A back-end tight end in a two-star-receiver offense, priced as a back-end tight end — the market has this one about right, and a fair price is a verdict too. The caveat is the mild upside in both directions: Fant's departure and a fully healthy Joe Burrow could nudge the targets up a step, but the two receivers ahead of him are the ceiling on this role, and no draft-day discount changes who Burrow looks at first.

  Watch Erick All's health first — it is the only real threat to the role — then whether Fant's vacated looks actually flow to Gesicki or to the running backs, and Burrow's target distribution once the games count. Fairly priced is not exciting, but it is accurate, and that is the call here. If he's one of your guys, this show exists for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.