This season has been totally unsuitable for Miami Dolphins’ tight end Mike Gesicki, the highlight being his wedding to girlfriend Halle and subsequent honeymoon at Bora Bora.
While in Bora Bora, Jesiki got word from his agent that Dolphins had been putting the franchise tag on him before he was set to access the free agent market.
However, the perfect wedding gift from Dolphins has been a long-term extension.
There’s still plenty of time to get that done because the deadline for franchise brand players to sign the extensions is July 15, and that’s clearly what Gesicki wants — it’s pretty much what every suspended free agent wants, as opposed to the franchise.
“I mean, I don’t think anyone in the league is going to be mad at the situation you’re going to be back in, obviously you get a raise for financial purposes and all that sort of thing,” Jesecki said. It is not clear that it is not the goal, but the end goal, to be everything. It’s definitely more friendly to the team than it is to the players. But just giving me more reasons to come back here, keep working hard and keep motivating and get back to work and help this team win football matches and hopefully in the end I get what I deserve in the end.”
Jessi focus on the present
As much as he wants this long-term contract, Gesicki is ready to attack the present — and that began with a tag signing and appearances on the voluntary offseason program.
I mean, I’m definitely playing. I’m here in Ota. It’s obviously my choice, so I’m here. I want to do everything I can to help this team win football matches. I’ve been here for four years. In the last two years we’ve been the last A team exits at the end of the regular season in terms of playoffs.
“All it takes is to go there and win a few games, win a playoff, get back there and kind of get this city going in the right direction. It’s been a long time. But it’s clearly a long process and a lot of work goes into it. We are far from So now, but there’s obviously excitement. But all 32 teams are excited. It’s April.”
The franchise tag number for tight ends was a little driver of $10.9 million for 2022, and that’s the salary Jesicki will be earning this season in the absence of a long-term contract.
It’s quite an upgrade from Gesicki’s rookie contract after he was a second-round pick in 2018, which paid him $6.6 million over four years, according to spotrac.com.
Nor is it the $18.4 million Gesicki would have earned had he been appointed as a wide receiver for franchisee purposes, though there are plans for his agent to challenge his appointment to the position — and he may have a case given how many times he’s lined up up in the slot — not left. Wednesday.
“As of now, I’m here, and I’m not really a controversial guy,” Jesiki said. “I’m not trying to be the bad guy in the locker room, the guy who brought down the organization or the guy who makes headlines for the wrong reasons. I’m just trying to help this team in whatever way I can move forward in Year Five.”
How and where Gesicki found out about being tagged
While the timing of the honeymoon was certainly less than ideal – imagine Gesicki becoming a free agent at the start of the market – the tight end made it clear that he had never really thought about it when he and Halle got engaged in July 2020 because he thought he’d get his extension by then.
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But Jesecki hasn’t left his wedding and honeymoon party in the back seat this off season.
He said, “It was crazy. I mean, I had so much fun this off season. It wasn’t a lot of the focus on football. It was a lot of focus on the wedding, the honeymoon and all that kind of thing, and I made sure Haley knew she was focusing on the wedding. And the honeymoon. I wasn’t even worried about the contract. It was great. It was great. It was everything I could have imagined.
“I was in Bora Bora on our honeymoon and it was like six hours difference in time. It was three in the morning, my agent texted me. He’s like, ‘Hey, they’re tagging you.’ I rolled over in the middle of the night, checked my phone, I got a message A text from my agent and I said, OK. I also got 100 more texts because I slept through it. It was 4 a.m., 3 a.m. Bora Bora time and I rolled over, checked my phone and knew it happened. Haley woke up, she was all excited and went back to sleep.”
Jessica’s Stretch Possibility
Whether the Dolphins decided to sign Gesicki for a long-term deal is still a bit of a mystery, though the fact that they haven’t made it to this point may be known.
And perhaps the team’s third-round spending on a tight Hunter Long in the 2021 draft was also indicative.
It’s not like Dolphins haven’t given extends to third-year players before — they did with Jerome Baker and Jason Sanders last year.
With the return of not just Jesekie but his good friend Durham Smith, the Dolphins are back with the same tight ends they had on the 2021 roster – Adam Shaheen, Sethan Carter and Long being others.
Exactly how long the dolphins will hold five tight limbs, an unusually high number especially after the linebacker is back on the roster, is an unanswered question at this point.
And using Long’s third-round pick just a year ago seems to suggest that the core of the group could change at some point and leave Gesicki’s long-term position a bit uncertain, especially given the lack of an extension heading into his fourth year the way the Dolphins have done with Jerome Baker and Jason Sanders.
But this is an issue that will be addressed later.
Now that he’s back in South Florida and about to finish the first phase of the Dolphins offseason program, Gesicki’s focus is back on football.
And this is where you will stay, rather than the possibility of a long-term contract.
Jesecki said, “I’m totally open to negotiating, but it’s not really up to me, because a lot of that isn’t. I just go with the flow. If they reach out, my agent will listen.”
“It’s honestly up to them. I have a really good relationship with (GM Chris Grier) and (Senior VP Brandon Shore), and this new tech might have something to do with it. I’m not sure. I don’t really have all the answers, but I know the kind of person I am and the worker Who I am. I’m just going to get back out there and keep doing what I’m doing, keep improving and making plays and help this team win football games and get compensated in the end.”