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

Mike Gesicki finally gave the camp reports something to write down, and it was a touchdown. In Thursday's joint practice against the Bears — a full starters-on-starters session — he caught a red-zone scoring throw from Joe Burrow, per Geoff Hobson at the team's site. The same session produced the week's other Gesicki data point: a Burrow pass bounced off his fingertips and became an interception, per Hobson. One touchdown and one deflection is a fair miniature of the Gesicki proposition — a genuine receiving tight end whose looks are real but not plentiful in an offense built around two star receivers. He also delivered the week's most quoted teammate observation, on Ja'Marr Chase declining player-of-the-day honors over a drop: "I respect that," followed by the sharper point that "when we feed Ja'Marr, someone else becomes open" — Gesicki being one of the someones, per Hobson.

The other development this week is the one our June preview specifically flagged, and it cuts the other way. Erick All Jr., back from the knee injury that had kept him off the field, started Saturday's 27 to nine win over the Bears, per the team's recap — his first game action, in a game the veteran starters sat. Gesicki did not appear in the game coverage, and Tanner Hudson caught a six-yard touchdown in it. June's read was that tight end targets are sticky but capped for Gesicki, with Noah Fant's departure as the small tailwind and All's return as the one real threat to his snaps; this was the week the threat became a participant.

What to watch: how the tight end room — Gesicki, All, Hudson, plus the rookies — survives the cut to 53 on Sunday, August 30, and whether All's workload keeps growing in the finale. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._