Former Penn State tight end Mike Gesicki is a fish out of water with the Dolphins

Former Penn State tight end Mike Gesicki made a name for himself in Happy Valley for his acrobatic catches and field-stretching vertical speed. The 6-6, 250-pound athlete is a unique blend of size and skills, with an impressive vertical leap and 35-plus inch arms. In his first four seasons with the Miami Dolphins, Gesicki caught 199 passes for 2,255 yards and 13 touchdowns.

But one thing he’s never been known for is his blocking.

That’s a significant issue now for Gesicki, with new head coach Mike McDaniel bringing Kyle Shanahan’s outside zone blocking scheme to the Dolphins. McDaniel’s scheme asks tight ends and fullbacks to do dirty work in the trenches and block defensive ends. It’s something Gesicki hasn’t done well at any point in his career and hasn’t done much in the last two seasons.

“It’s definitely a whole different offense, a whole different scheme. I’m learning a new position, honestly,” Gesicki told the Miami Herald after the game. So what does he mean by playing a different position?

Former Penn State star broke out with Dolphins in a new role

In the last two seasons, 1,203 of his offensive snaps have come from the slot or out wide. However, he’s only lined up as an inline tight end 221 times, according to PFF. So when he says he played a different position, he’s not overstating his role.

“I played receiver last year; I played receiver the last three, four years. I’m playing tight end now. Any reps I can get live out there, blocking, putting my hands on another guy and going out there and working hard and blocking and honestly just working on my footwork, my hand placement, all that kind of stuff. Any reps I can get at that, I can use it,” he told the Herald.

During the first half of Miami’s week two preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Gesicki lined up next to the offensive tackle 17 times, which is almost 20% of the snaps he’d had inline last season. Unfortunately, the results were not good for the former Penn Stater. He was an ineffective blocker in the run game and gave up a pressure that resulted in a safety in his one pass blocking attempt. However, these problems were not unforeseen.

Gesicki’s struggles against Las Vegas

It’s been an apparent mismatch all offseason for the team. Gesicki is seen as one of the up-and-coming players at his position throughout the league. Still, the Dolphins reluctantly tendered him a franchise tag this offseason but haven’t seemed interested in locking Gesicki down with a long-term contract.

There’s also a contract angle to Gesicki’s plea to be considered a wide receiver. The receiver franchise tag is nearly double that of the tight end tag at 18.4 million dollars. Gesicki, and other tight ends in the past, have argued that their positional usage should qualify them as receivers and not true tight ends. However, Gesicki, former Saints tight end Jimmy Graham and players like them have all signed the tight end tag, which was 10.9 million dollars this offseason.

So will things turn around for the former Penn State tight end in Miami?

It’s hard to see that as a logical conclusion. But unfortunately, the reality is that Gesicki has never been a good blocker. Also, this isn’t the first time a team has tried to make him a traditional tight end. In his rookie season of 2018, the previous Dolphins staff lined him up primarily as a traditional tight end. Not only was his blocking the same as it was at Penn State, but he produced a career-low 202 yards on 22 catches. He lined up at tight end for Penn State as well and the results as a blocker were much the same.

The fifth-year pro has never had a PFF run-blocking grade above the neutral 60.0 line in the grading system. In other words, he’s been an active negative as a blocker every season at Penn State and in his NFL career. Whether you believe in PFF’s grading system or not, that level of consistency is hard to reach.

On top of that, McDaniel’s efforts to get the best out of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa are also problematic for Gesicki.

“The way I learned football and some of the stuff that we got really good at in San Francisco is yards after the catch, which is maximized by ball placement,” McDaniel said on the Dan LeBatard show recently.

The George Kittle Role

McDaniel is saying that he wants Gesicki to play the George Kittle role in the Miami offense. The former Penn State Nittany Lion and Iowa Hawkeye are wildly different athletes in just about every aspect of football. Gesicki is a jump ball specialist who gets the football despite a lack of separation. Of Gesicki’s 73 receptions last season, 32 were contested.

On the flip side, Kittle only had 18 contested catches last season for San Francisco but broke 17 tackles after the catch. He had five in a week three game against Kansas City in 2021.

Gesicki broke nine tackles all last year.

All of this sets up for a rough season down in South Florida for Gesicki. Yet, players can still be successful no matter how bleak a situation. He’s still tall, fast, and catches the ball in traffic. The coaching staff won’t ask him to change his game altogether, but they will put him in different situations. If his struggles blocking erodes his confidence, we might see a different Mike Gesicki in 2022.