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I think that the Tight End position might be the bellwether for what's to come with this team.

Mike Gesicki is a good player.  He's going to be best used in space.  He's not a great blocking TE, as we all know, but he's also not the kind of guy who's going to do great in short yardage after a lot of contact.  His specialty isn't making a tough catch after a 5 yard chuck with a guy draped on him.

But we're not the team for that.  If we're going to go downfield in space, we're much more likely to utilize Hill or Waddle.

Thus, Gesicki is getting wasted here.  This isn't news.


What will be news, however, is how we respond.

I believe that we can get a better player (not better overall, but better for what we need) for less money.  And the situation I look to emulate is what we saw with Jeff Wilson Jr.

Chase Edmunds wasn't working out for us.  It just wasn't a fit that worked, for whatever reason.  He was a bigger name, but he wasn't performing.  Maybe he was washed, maybe it was a system thing.  But by getting rid of Edmunds and hand picking Jeff Wilson Jr., a guy that McDaniel knew well, we got better instantly and it didn't cost us.  We didn't have to go get a high profile guy; we got a good fit guy.

I hope to see the same thing with TE and I think that these minor improvements through tweaking the type of player, rather than going out and chasing a big name superstar, is the true path to improvement, and most what I hope to see out of McDaniel and Grier.

Considering the options we have at WR and hopefully we keep our RB duo, our TE does not need to be offensively gifted. His man job will be to block and be the 6th option for throws. That's a nice luxury to have, being able to improve your team with a TE that doesn't need to make many catches. This expands our search as we can pick one up in the later rounds, see what is on the free agent pile or trade for one.

Joe Rose and Chris Perkins (Sun-Sentinel) were discussing this just this morning. Chris said TE coach Jon Embry has said he questions Hunter Long's desire to play football. Said they really like Tanner Conner but he ssatyed hurt and wasnt productive when in there. Basacially by letting Mike go we will have Durham Smythe and not much else. Smythe had 15 catches for 129 yards and 1 TD. Nothing to brag about. They both said to expect big changes at this position and they will bring in some McDaniel type guys.

How the hell do we use a 3rd rounder on a guy who doesn't want to play football? That's like when we drafted Jordan Phillips in the 2nd round and the broadcasters of the draft listed "Desire to play football" as a Con.

The same way our doctors say Tua is no more at risk of getting a concussion next year than anyone else or that Drew Brees won''t ever play significant football again but Culpepper will.

Don't read too much into that. That's a coach saying that as a rookie you got to work harder than everyone else and apparently he didn't see Long doing that initially, but if you read further he also said that he has learned that Long does want to play football so apparently Long has started to realize that if he wants to play he's going to have to work for it. Sometimes when players get a contract they think they have made it, they don't realize that those contracts are very short and if they want another one, they are going to have to produce.

Read it? Where did you read it. I was listening to him speak on the raido a he sat in for an hour or so yesterday.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/te-coach-wondered-football-important-130036601.html

Oh ... I haven't seen anything in writing and he didn't mention it yesterday that I recall.

If McD isn't going to use the TE as a passing option, then who cares?  Just put a guy in there that can block.  Gesicki's targets went from 112 to 46 this year, and I doubt many of those were plays designed to go to him.  Tua looked to Hill or Waddle, and if they weren't open threw to Cracraft or Sherfield.  Embry shouldn't be talking about Hunter Long's desire, I question Embry's desire.  Embry should have been fighting for his guys to see more targets, he's the problem when it comes to TE's.

Miami doesn't need a TE that people are expecting to catch the ball. They need a TE that mauls people in the running game and then caches the occasional pass.

A slightly larger WR that can't block and can't get open isn't the right TE for the dolphins.

They already have that in Smythe. They need someone who is more of a pass threat but can still block. Long may be that player, that remains to be seen.

+1

If Gesicki isn't being targeted, I'm not sure it matters who we get. Up until this season he would regularly get wide open downfield, but as mentioned our deeper targets under McDaniel are almost always the smaller guys. If I was to hazard a guess, it's got to be the complete opposite as Dave mentioned, a short yardage guy who can handle a lot of contact. But is that even going to make much of a difference to what on the surface looks like a Run-and-Shoot offense scheme?

It's weird they mention about the importance of blocking, because in the games I've seen I'm buggered if I can remember even a handful of blocks thrown by the tight ends or running backs. If it's that big an issue, we could always throw in an additional OL and call Hunt as an eligible receiver - we saw last year he can catch and rumble, maybe he could be our version of The Fridge?