Mike Gesicki on Signing Three-Year Extension With Cincinnati Bengals
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00:00It means everything, honestly.
00:01This is really all I've been chasing in my career
00:05for the last, you know, going on year eight.
00:08Just to be valued, to be appreciated,
00:11and to be wanted, you know, long-term.
00:14So, it's super cool to kind of see all that kind of stuff
00:17come to fruition.
00:20What does it mean to you to have an all-time year here
00:22after the last few years being on campus?
00:24Yeah, absolutely.
00:25I mean, this is the longest year I've had
00:27since I got drafted, you know?
00:28So, it's cool to,
00:32especially with the journey that I've kind of been on.
00:36You know, I had franchise tag, which was one-year deal.
00:39New England, one-year deal.
00:41Last year, like, pretty much just begging everybody
00:45in the building to just give me a chance
00:47to come to Cincinnati.
00:48Like, I knew that if I got my foot in the door here,
00:52that it was going to be the perfect situation.
00:55So, now, to capitalize on that and kind of see the vision
00:59before it happened, to kind of see that,
01:02you know, be what it is today, I'm super grateful.
01:05And it feels good to, you know, to be appreciated,
01:10to be wanted, to be valued.
01:12So, I'm excited about it.
01:14Talk about being wanted.
01:15What was it like when Joe was talking at the Super Bowl,
01:17and your name shows up in the books?
01:19Yeah.
01:20Were you expecting that?
01:21Did you talk to Joe before that?
01:23Did not talk to Joe before that.
01:25I am, like, that picture on Twitter.
01:30You see the dude, like, pointing himself on the couch.
01:32Like, that was me, literally, on my couch.
01:34I was sitting there with my wife, and I was like,
01:36I literally looked, and I was like,
01:37Hallie, like, I think he's talking about me.
01:42So, when he said that, it was awesome,
01:45just because, like, it shows that, you know,
01:47the chemistry that, you know,
01:49we were able to build on the field,
01:51and the plays that we made on the field,
01:52and, you know, the chemistry off the field,
01:54like, it all translated to that.
01:57And so, it was a really cool moment.
02:01We definitely got some good laughs out of it.
02:04But I do, you know, I mean, I'm going to work my tail off
02:08every single day for the Cincinnati Bengals,
02:10but for Joe Burrow, because, I mean,
02:12he did so much for my career last year,
02:15just giving me the opportunity, and believing in me,
02:17and trusting in me that, hey, Mike's going to win.
02:20Like, I'm going to throw him the ball here
02:21when, you know, you got Jamar and T
02:23who are attracting attention.
02:26But then off the field, doing things like that in the media,
02:28just mentioning my name and things like that.
02:30So, it was awesome.
02:31How much do you think,
02:32and obviously, Faye would want to get back,
02:33but how much do you think Joe being so much in your corner
02:36was a big part of the reason this got done for you?
02:40Yeah, I think that that definitely helped.
02:42I think that that definitely helped.
02:43Joe, like I said, you know, I owe a lot to him,
02:47and I'm super grateful for our friendship,
02:51and it's been cool to kind of watch that develop,
02:56and definitely having the best quarterback on planet Earth
03:01have your back, that helps.
03:03How much did that back in the decision
03:04when you were, you know, could have taken the vacancy,
03:06but how much did you back that in
03:07with whatever the financial compensation
03:09was going to have to be involved in?
03:10Yeah, absolutely.
03:12I definitely knew that I was going to take the Joe Burrow tax,
03:16so I knew that, and I was like, I'm cool with it,
03:21and so it makes it easy to come back to a place like this
03:26with a head coach like Zach Taylor,
03:28with an offense coordinator like Dan Pitcher,
03:30and tight end coach James Casey,
03:35my guy Brad who draws up the third down plan.
03:37Like, there's so many different guys
03:40that were in the back of my mind as I'm thinking about,
03:42you know, do I test the market,
03:45and, you know, you hear about your value
03:48and all that kind of stuff and what it could be,
03:50and at that point, it's just like, this is what I wanted.
03:53I wanted to go to Cincinnati, and I wanted to be in an offense
03:56that allowed me to, you know, reach my potential,
03:59and I think that this place
04:02gives me everything that I'm looking for.
04:04How much better do you think you and the offense in general
04:07can get next year?
04:08Yeah, I mean, there's definitely room to grow.
04:10I think that there was a lot of production last year
04:13from so many different guys,
04:15but I think that, you know,
04:16there's another level to tap into,
04:19so whether it just be, you know, myself
04:21or collectively as an offensive unit,
04:24I think that there's a lot of things that, you know,
04:27we're going to go back to the drawing board
04:28and get back to work.