Mike Gesicki proves to be an exception for the Bengals as the first major domino to fall in their free agency plans
Free agency for the Cincinnati Bengals was going to be kickstarted by the first notable multi-year deal the team reached with one of its players. Mike Gesicki decided it was going to be him. Per multiple reports, Gesicki is set to sign a three-year, $25.5 million contract with Cincinnati with nearly half of that reaching […]
Free agency for the Cincinnati Bengals was going to be kickstarted by the first notable multi-year deal the team reached with one of its players. Mike Gesicki decided it was going to be him.
Per multiple reports, Gesicki is set to sign a three-year, $25.5 million contract with Cincinnati with nearly half of that reaching his bank account this year.
Gesicki was scheduled to hit free agency next week and would've had multiple offers to mull over during the legal tampering period. A to Z Sports rated him as the fifth-best tight end who would've been available on the market. He surely had an idea of what he was in line to earn leading up to that point. He chose the Bengals' offer before letting any other team officially enter the picture.
That's significant for a couple reasons.
Gesicki made his intentions clear at the onset of the offseason. He was going to use success he experienced in just one season with the Bengals to finally realize the pay day he's been chasing for years. He was denied it back in 2022 when the Miami Dolphins placed the franchise tag on him. His market perished the next two seasons as he wound up in Cincinnati to earn just $2.5 million.
"You know, because I came off a career year, got franchise tagged, so I wasn't able to hit the market then," Gesicki said in January. "And then I went to New England, wasn't utilized nearly as much as I anticipated, so then my market was super low. Not that that's the only thing on my mind is making up money, but it's definitely a motivation, it's definitely a thought process in my mind."
If you told Gesicki he'd make roughly five times what he made last year in the next nine months alone, you would've had a pretty good chance of getting him to sign. That's exactly what the Bengals did here.
It made sense for this partnership to continue. 2024 saw Gesicki posting the most yardage from a Bengals tight end since Tyler Eifert and the most receptions since Jermaine Gresham. Tight end might be Gesicki's listed position, but 91% of his usage in the passing game came from the slot or out wide. He's a big-bodied receiver who will be attached to the line of scrimmage once every 10 plays.
And it's a wonderful fit for Cincinnati's offense. Joe Burrow relied on Gesicki's athleticism and catch radius when Tee Higgins missed a handful of games in the heart of the season. Burrow also made sure to mention Gesicki's name in the list of players he deemed necessary for the team to retain.
Technically, this is the largest contract we've seen the Bengals give out to a tight end since C.J. Uzomah's three-year, $18 million deal from 2019. It comes a few years after the team let Uzomah walk in free agency and started going through one-year rentals to replace him. Hayden Hurst was first and later left for a multi-year deal he never saw the conclusion of with the Carolina Panthers. Irv Smith Jr. came next and was a complete whiff.
Gesicki proved third time's a charm to be correct.
I opinied back in January that the best resolution would be for Gesicki and the Bengals to meet in the middle on a multi-year deal. I didn't think it would be for three years, but around $8.5 million per year was a price that was predictable. The front office did well to retain a clear fit for Burrow's offense and satisfying Gesicki's monetary goals without having to break the bank.
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