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Sleeper: Mike Gesicki - CIN


If you are looking for a tight end that perfectly defines the tight end position in fantasy football, it's Mike Gesicki. And he's been that way since he entered the league — some huge games and then he just absolutely disappears for others. That's the way the tight end position feels unless you have one of the top three, maybe four guys.


So when I was looking at sleepers for the tight end position, it felt kind of gross to add Mike Gesicki. But I said, "You know what? A tight end that at worst is probably going to be the number three target in a high-powered offense on a team with a defense that likely isn't going to be that good." Okay. Yeah, I'll invest a late-round pick. I'll take him as my tight end two. We'll roll and we'll see what happens.


In 2024, he did have his best season since 2021 — the most targets, most receptions, and most receiving yards he's had since that season. And among other tight ends, he wasn't really all that bad last year: 11th in targets, 8th in receptions, and 10th in receiving yards. But then I decided to dive a little deeper. I wanted to know from an efficiency standpoint — was Mike Gesicki a little bit better than the overall volume numbers showed us? And yes, he was.

Among tight ends with 70 or more targets last season, Mike was 5th in catch percentage, 8th in average depth of target, 7th in yards per target, 6th in yards per reception, and 4th in fantasy points per snap.


Now, the Bengals’ offense last season attempted 652 passes, second-most in the NFL. And you have to guess that they're probably going to go 600 or more again in 2025 given the way that defense looks right now — and the fact that they could still lose Trey Hendrickson. On top of it, the Bengals right now have the 14th hardest schedule heading into 2025.


But here's one point that I don't want to miss from last season — because when you take a look at the overall numbers, that's why they don't look nearly as good as the efficiency. From Weeks 1 through 7 last season, Mike per game only averaged 3.1 targets, 2.6 receptions, and 25.7 receiving yards.


Now, what changed in Week 7? Tee Higgins. Tee Higgins went down with an injury, missed a little bit of time. Gesicki rolled the rest of the year, averaging 6.1 targets, 4.7 receptions, and 48.5 receiving yards from Week 8 through Week 18. And Tee Higgins, over the last two seasons, has missed 10 games combined.


So maybe last season it just took some time for Mike to get going. And then once Tee Higgins went down with his injury, they fully integrated him into the system. And now in 2025, he'll feel way more comfortable and can get off to a better start even if Tee Higgins is playing.


And if you're like, "Well, Kyle, I'm still concerned about what Mike is going to do if Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are on the field…" Well, last year — last two games of the season, a time when Cincinnati needed to win to make the playoffs — over the final two weeks, Mike had 22 targets and 18 receptions during that time. 86 receiving yards in Week 17, 68 receiving yards in Week 18. And that's with all of them being on the field together.


Mike is going to have some risk. He's not going to be a consistent tight end. But he is going to be a guy who — if he's being drafted as the TE20 or later — if you're drafting a backup tight end, take a shot. Pick up Mike. And if he puts up the numbers that he did in the second half of last season, even with Tee Higgins coming back from injury, Mike could end up being a guy that — in those perfect situations where maybe we need to stream a tight end or play someone over our starter due to a bye week, injury, whatever it may be — Mike could still be a potential fantasy football sleeper.


Do it.

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