Chan Gailey’s history of using TE’s may not be good for Mike Gesicki
By Brian Miller
When the Miami Dolphins hired Chan Gailey to be their offensive coordinator, the first person who came to mind was Mike Gesicki.
In 2019, Mike Gesicki began to take that next level step under Chad O’Shea. It was the first time that we as fans got to see what Gesicki might be able to do but now that Chan Gailey is the offensive coordinator, I wondered what exactly that might do for Gesicki and his further development.
Gailey has served as an offensive coordinator five times previously including a stint with the Dolphins way back in 2000 and 2001. He also has two stints as a full-time head coach, one with Dallas and one with the Bills.
The thought of Gesicki improving or maybe not being used the way he was last year got me thinking about how well Gailey has used his tight-ends in the past. So I looked it up.
Offensive coordinator:
Broncos – ’89 – ’90: With John Elway at quarterback the Broncos offense was very good but the production at the TE position, not so much. Orson Mobley led the team with 17 receptions for 200 yards and Clarence Kay caught 21 for 197 with two touchdowns. Not a big year for TE use but then again, does anyone really remember them?
In 1990, Shannon Sharpe joined the team but he only caught 7 passes for 99 yards and one touchdown. Kay posted a 29 and 282 mark.
Steelers – ’96 – ’97: Behind the arms of Kordell Stewart, Jim Miller, and Mike Tomczak over the course of two seasons, the Steelers didn’t have great QB’s. The leading TE was Mark Bruehner who caught 12 for 141 and 18 for 117 in 1997 where he also caught six touchdown passes.
Dolphins – ’00 – ’01: Miami’s struggles were well-noted and some have said that it was Gailey’s opinion that Drew Brees was too small as a reason Miami passed on the HOF to be QB. With Jay Fiedler under center, the Dolphins relied more on their running game. Jed Weaver and Hunter Goodwin were the team’s top TE’s. Goodwin posted seasons of 6/36/1 and 4/27 while Weaver posted a 10/179 and 18/215/2 stat line.
Chiefs: 2008: Gailey had one season in Kansas City but it was his best in terms of getting production from the tight end position. Of course, having a HOF TE on his roster didn’t hurt. Tony Gonzalez posted 96 receptions for 1,058 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Jets 2015 and 2016: Another run with Ryan Fitzpatrick this time in green, the TE wasn’t used much in Gailey’s offense. Jeff Cumberland led the team in 2015 with five receptions for 17 yards and Austin Sefarian-Jenkins posted a 10/110 stat line a year later.
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Head Coach:
Dallas ’98 – ’99: Gailey was fortunate to have Troy Aikman as his QB even though his career was winding down. The problem was he didn’t really have much in the way of a TE. Eric Bjornson and David LeFleur were the primary TE’s on the roster those years. Bjornson posted 15/218/1 and 10/131 seasons while LeFleur posted 20/176/2 and 35/122.
Buffalo 2010 – 2012: Gailey was once again reunited with Ryan Fitzpatrick. At TE, he platooned several players his first year with Jonathan Stupor posted the best stats with a 12/111 line. In 2011, Gailey got far more production from Scott Chandler who posted 38/389/6 in ’11 and 43/57/6 in ’12.
Miami Dolphins – 2020
We have no idea what Gailey will bring to the Dolphins after coming out of retirement and we really don’t know how he will use Mike Gesicki. In the Patriot style of offense that we saw a bit of last year, the tight end is a focal point of the offense. Under Gailey, it never has.
There are several reasons why that may be the case. Several stops he simply didn’t have very good tight ends and the one season he did, K.C. in 2008, Gonzalez posted over 1,000 yards. Gailey has also had several tight ends sharing the workload but most of them were considered more blocking type TEs.
For Gesicki, staying in to block is going to stop his development as a receiver and frankly, he needs to be more involved in the passing game than in the blocking game. How Gailey uses him this year could go a long way in determining if he is going to be around for a while or if he will be another player that Miami has, can’t use, and then watches him walk away to become better somewhere else.
It is hard to predict what Gailey’s offense will be. Will he use the talent he has as he did with Gonzalez or will TE be an afterthought? The fact that he never really had great tight ends or even average most of the time makes it hard to figure out how Gesicki will be used.