Hopefully you didn’t buy a Mike Gesicki jersey last season. Gesicki wore the number ’86’ as a rookie, but he’s already flipped that back to his college number — ’88’. And that’s exactly how many days we are away from Miami Dolphins football in 2019! 88 days stand between us and Miami’s kickoff against the dreaded Baltimore Ravens.
Few players will be a better barometer to the kind of hands this organization is in than Mike Gesicki. Gesicki struggled greatly as a rookie in 2018 — in part because he was raw in some aspects coming out and Miami probably got a little ambitious with drafting him as early as they did (42nd overall in 2018). But beyond that, the Dolphins coaching staff did Gesicki absolutely no favors last year — as a matter of fact they insisted on using Gesicki in ways that in no way mirrored his strengths and weaknesses as a player.
That’s not the objective of any good coach — which is why it’s so promising to hear new head coach Brian Flores talk about how he wants to develop players and put them in the best position to be successful.
Guys like Gesicki are Brian Flores’ best way to prove it. If Gesicki spends more time flexed outside the hashes in 2019, the Dolphins have already improved his prospects. But if Gesicki shows more crafty releases off the line of scrimmage and can get free in the secondary with smoother breaks, then the Dolphins may actually have an asset worth some volume in the passing game.
We’re only “Mike Gesicki” days away from finding out.
