After an offseason of questions surrounding tight finish Mike Gesicki’s match into the Miami Dolphins’ new offense below coach Mike McDaniel, his debut within the system didn’t supply a lot to hush up doubters.
Gesicki had one reception that went for 1 yard on his one goal. He was on the sector for simply 25 offensive snaps, 42 % of the Dolphins’ offensive performs in Sunday’s 20-7 win over the New England Patriots.
Those numbers appear to justify the notion that it could possibly be a protracted season taking part in below the franchise tag for Gesicki in a brand new scheme, however McDaniel indicated this week that the statistics didn’t mirror Miami’s preliminary sport plan.
“I would have expected, at the end of the game, by our game plan, for him to have more pass-game production,” McDaniel stated on Monday. “I would have expected him to have more, but that’s just how the ball bounces sometimes in an NFL football game.”
Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith, on Thursday, as Miami prepares to face the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday, relayed an identical message that the crew is on the lookout for methods to get the ball to the 6-foot-6 pass-catcher that set profession highs of 73 receptions for 780 yards in 2021.
“We want to get him involved, and obviously, that was a goal of ours in the game. It just didn’t work out that way,” Smith stated. “Some of the touches we were trying to incorporate him on, the game of football played out the way it did. The opportunity that we’re trying to get him the ball, something didn’t go the way that allowed us to operate in getting him the ball on time. Always, we’re trying to make sure we get our guys the matchups and the opportunities that we want.”
Where the query for Gesicki nonetheless largely stays is in his blocking capacity. It’s been a famous weak point in his sport by means of his first 4 NFL seasons, and within the wide-zone blocking scheme the brand new offensive teaching workers is incorporating, it’s pivotal to have a viable blocking possibility at tight finish.
Previous regimes would usually preserve him off the sector for operating performs, which led to predictability in play calling. Gesicki has principally lined up out large or within the slot lately, versus as a conventional in-line blocking tight finish. He went so far as calling it a brand new place this preseason as he performed much more through the exhibition season than different veterans on the crew.
“I think he’s been improving since the day he got here,” Smith stated of Gesicki’s blocking. “The greatest challenge is just getting those [opportunities] in a game.”
Gesicki and fellow tight finish Durham Smythe had been each drafted by the Dolphins in 2018. Gesicki was at all times the higher receiving menace whereas Smythe was the blocking specialist.
“He’s one of the best pass-catching tight ends in the NFL,” Smythe stated Thursday.
In the opener towards New England, Smythe had 38 snaps to Gesicki’s 25. Smythe, nevertheless, doesn’t consider that’s indicative of how a snap distribution will play out each week between the Dolphins’ prime two tight ends.
“It is a week-to-week matchup type of deal,” he stated.
Gesicki seeing fewer snaps than Smythe in matching up with the Patriots is in line with what the Dolphins did final season in each conferences with the division rival. In the 2021 opener in Foxborough, Smythe had 38 snaps to Gesicki’s 21, and in final season’s finale in Miami Gardens, Smythe outsnapped Gesicki, 47-39.
But even when Gesicki was on the sector for his 25 performs on Sunday, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa solely threw his means the one time.
“A lot of plays breaking down and having to move to find other guys,” Tagovailoa defined Wednesday. “It’s just playing football.”
The Ravens are stout in all phases defensively, however in Week 1, the New York Jets did throw to tight finish Tyler Conklin seven occasions — granted, out of 59 total move makes an attempt. Conklin completed with 4 receptions for 16 yards and New York’s lone landing.
“We’re all on the same page with doing whatever’s required to win,” Smythe stated. “Whatever that is on a week-to-week basis, that’s what I support, whether it’s us needing to run the ball 50 times or throw it around 50 times. It doesn’t matter to me. It just kind of boils down to whatever it takes to win the game.”
Gesicki has not spoken to reporters since Sunday’s sport.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com