New England Patriots free-agent signing Mike Gesicki has always been something of a wide receiver in a tight end’s body

The 6-foot-6, 245-pound pass catcher is officially listed as a tight end on the Patriots’ roster, but his most productive snaps have always come in the slot or split out wide. In Gesicki’s two least productive seasons — as a rookie in 2018 and last season under new head coach Mike McDaniel — he spent the heaviest workload inline as a traditional tight end.

ESPN’s Mike Reiss indicated Sunday that Gesicki will continue to take on wide receiver responsibilities with the Patriots:

“Belichick referred to free agent signee Mike Gesicki as “hard to cover” and “kind of a unique player,” adding “hopefully we’ll be able to use him productively.” Belichick made it sound like the team views Gesicki more as a receiver than a traditional tight end, putting him in the category with receivers DeVante Parker, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton and Kendrick Bourne instead of with tight end Hunter Henry.” — Mike Reiss, ESPN

It does not sound like a position switch is currently anticipated, however. 

A source said Gesicki isn’t expected to meet with wide receivers, but “he won't be asked to do typical tight end blocking assignments either.” 

That's certainly sounds a little bit different from how he was used by McDaniel in Miami, when he lined up inline on 33 percent of snaps. That was up from 12 percent in 2021, 19.6 percent in 2020 and 22.7 percent in 2019. Gesicki played 59.7 percent of his snaps inline as a rookie in 2018.

Here were Belichick’s two quotes on Gesicki:

“Tough guy to go gameplan for, hard to cover. I look forward to working with Mike. So, we’ll see how it goes. He’s kind of a unique player, so hopefully we’ll be able to use him productively. …

“I think that’s true (that Gesicki has versatility). We’ll see. I’ve never worked with Mike before. I look forward to working with him. We’ll see how it all fits together.”

Gesicki was franchise-tagged last season as a tight end, which brought a lower salary than if he had been tagged as a wide receiver. He did not fight the designation.

Here’s what a source said about Gesicki after the Patriots signed him to a one-year, $4.5 million contract with another $4.5 million in incentives: “He has some gravitational pull in terms of game planning and how defenses have to account for him. And then, with the length, hands and leaping he's open even when he's covered.”

The Patriots will have a lot of offensive skill players to choose from when putting together personnel packages with Rhamondre Stevenson and James Robinson at running back, JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Tyquan Thornton and Kendrick Bourne at wide receiver and Gesicki and Hunter Henry at tight end. Only five of those players can be on the field at the same time, so it will be interesting to see how snap counts are divvied up by Belichick and new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

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