Oldfaithful
Hall of Famer
2018 Scouting Report: Mike Gesicki, Tight End, Penn State
This is a series of articles about players I have been personally scouting. Since I have no life I enjoy watching the tapes of several prospects. Would I consider myself an expert or a guru? Nope. I’m not applying for jobs with other teams. Would I say I’ve had more hits than misses? Yes, especially over the past three years.
Now it’s been awhile since I’ve put up one of these. Truth be told, now was the right time to start doing this. Which is fine. This is going to be a learning process for me. Now I figured I’d tap into this tight end class, as in my opinion this is where the class shines. This class is not as top heavy as last year’s but is impressive. We could honestly miss out on Mark Andrews and there’d be four prospects that I would enjoy if we drafted that I think could be good contributors.
Mike Gesicki is a prospect tailor made for our offense. Tight End is a massive need for us, as we need a contributor over the middle that could be a threat. We are probably going to pick one early, and here is a prospect who I think could make a home here.
Gesicki and Dallas Godert are the two next players in the trend of “basketball players becoming stud tight ends”. And I genuinely think that both are going to be high end contributors in whatever offense decides to grace them by drafting them.
Positives:
Mike Gesicki often gets overlooked as Barkley is the star on the team, but anyone who merely looks at him will understand that he’s EASILY NFL caliber. I don’t see him as an elite player, but a damn good one. The following clip below is exactly what you’re getting with this man.
Mike Gesicki is your quintessential move Tight End. If there was any prospect that I think is a Dennis Pitta clone, as in how Pitta played the game, here he is. Even down to his number of choice. Gesicki has the best hands in a class with players who have very good hands. His hands are a good old pair of vice grips that will hold onto just about anything if it is thrown in his general direction. And I mean it, he’s big at 6’6 250 pounds. Former basketball player, but he is also a former volley ball player. And both show. The basketball player in him will be textbook in boxing people out and going up to get rebounds, along with very good footwork. But the volley ball player shows some of the better body control I’ve seen from a prospect in general. But where all this really shows is in his jump ball ability, which is arguably the best in the class, Godert included.
Dude is tough to bring down in the open field as well. Like Pitta, he’s not overly fast, but he’s a little slippery. Combine that with a big body and you have a guy who is going to be a nightmare over the middle of the field. He’s not freakishly athletic, in fact I’d argue that he’s not even top 3 in overall athleticism at the tight end position in the class. But he’s not lacking in the athleticism department. In fact, his leaping ability is elite.
Overall.. As a pure receiver he has next to weaknesses.
Negatives:
Move Tight End. Terrible blocker. It amazes me that Barkley was as dominant as he was without an elite offensive line. I don’t need to say much here, Pitta was a poor blocker too(the resemblances are uncanny). Here is an area where Pitta and Gesicki differ: Pitta was faster. Different type of athlete than Gesicki. That said, Gesicki isn’t exactly lacking in the speed department, but it certainly isn’t elite. But I think it would easily be seen as above average at the NFL level. And he has more hops than Pitta could ever hope to have so I would consider it a trade off. But the fact that he’s a terrible blocker could regulate him to a limited role on the inside.
Overall: About the move tight end thing. We regulated Pitta to slot duty a fair amount of the time. I do not care about Gesicki’s blocking ability as Williams and Boyle are both good blockers in their own right. We could use one. But in terms of how he plays the game, the resemblences to Pitta are uncanny. Upon further discussisons with @Truth I do have to agree. I see Gesicki being a good threat in the red zone and a nice security blanket for any quarterback. But let’s be real here: that’s exactly what Pitta was. Gesicki is not going to be an elite tight end, but I do not think it would be out of the question if he became a well above average option. He’s got a pair of vice grip hands, great ball skills, and is a very good athlete to top it off. Any team would be lucky to have the man.
Pro comparison: Dennis Pitta.. He’s basically a clone of him.
Grade: Round 3-4.
Please stay tuned in the near future for more of these. I think I'm gonna do a tight end run. Dallas Godert next?
This is a series of articles about players I have been personally scouting. Since I have no life I enjoy watching the tapes of several prospects. Would I consider myself an expert or a guru? Nope. I’m not applying for jobs with other teams. Would I say I’ve had more hits than misses? Yes, especially over the past three years.
Now it’s been awhile since I’ve put up one of these. Truth be told, now was the right time to start doing this. Which is fine. This is going to be a learning process for me. Now I figured I’d tap into this tight end class, as in my opinion this is where the class shines. This class is not as top heavy as last year’s but is impressive. We could honestly miss out on Mark Andrews and there’d be four prospects that I would enjoy if we drafted that I think could be good contributors.
Mike Gesicki is a prospect tailor made for our offense. Tight End is a massive need for us, as we need a contributor over the middle that could be a threat. We are probably going to pick one early, and here is a prospect who I think could make a home here.
Gesicki and Dallas Godert are the two next players in the trend of “basketball players becoming stud tight ends”. And I genuinely think that both are going to be high end contributors in whatever offense decides to grace them by drafting them.
Positives:
Mike Gesicki often gets overlooked as Barkley is the star on the team, but anyone who merely looks at him will understand that he’s EASILY NFL caliber. I don’t see him as an elite player, but a damn good one. The following clip below is exactly what you’re getting with this man.
Mike Gesicki is your quintessential move Tight End. If there was any prospect that I think is a Dennis Pitta clone, as in how Pitta played the game, here he is. Even down to his number of choice. Gesicki has the best hands in a class with players who have very good hands. His hands are a good old pair of vice grips that will hold onto just about anything if it is thrown in his general direction. And I mean it, he’s big at 6’6 250 pounds. Former basketball player, but he is also a former volley ball player. And both show. The basketball player in him will be textbook in boxing people out and going up to get rebounds, along with very good footwork. But the volley ball player shows some of the better body control I’ve seen from a prospect in general. But where all this really shows is in his jump ball ability, which is arguably the best in the class, Godert included.
Dude is tough to bring down in the open field as well. Like Pitta, he’s not overly fast, but he’s a little slippery. Combine that with a big body and you have a guy who is going to be a nightmare over the middle of the field. He’s not freakishly athletic, in fact I’d argue that he’s not even top 3 in overall athleticism at the tight end position in the class. But he’s not lacking in the athleticism department. In fact, his leaping ability is elite.
Overall.. As a pure receiver he has next to weaknesses.
Negatives:
Move Tight End. Terrible blocker. It amazes me that Barkley was as dominant as he was without an elite offensive line. I don’t need to say much here, Pitta was a poor blocker too(the resemblances are uncanny). Here is an area where Pitta and Gesicki differ: Pitta was faster. Different type of athlete than Gesicki. That said, Gesicki isn’t exactly lacking in the speed department, but it certainly isn’t elite. But I think it would easily be seen as above average at the NFL level. And he has more hops than Pitta could ever hope to have so I would consider it a trade off. But the fact that he’s a terrible blocker could regulate him to a limited role on the inside.
Overall: About the move tight end thing. We regulated Pitta to slot duty a fair amount of the time. I do not care about Gesicki’s blocking ability as Williams and Boyle are both good blockers in their own right. We could use one. But in terms of how he plays the game, the resemblences to Pitta are uncanny. Upon further discussisons with @Truth I do have to agree. I see Gesicki being a good threat in the red zone and a nice security blanket for any quarterback. But let’s be real here: that’s exactly what Pitta was. Gesicki is not going to be an elite tight end, but I do not think it would be out of the question if he became a well above average option. He’s got a pair of vice grip hands, great ball skills, and is a very good athlete to top it off. Any team would be lucky to have the man.
Pro comparison: Dennis Pitta.. He’s basically a clone of him.
Grade: Round 3-4.
Please stay tuned in the near future for more of these. I think I'm gonna do a tight end run. Dallas Godert next?
Last edited by a moderator:
