Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - MIKE G BACK | Cincinnati Bengals re-sign Mike Gesicki to 3-year contract

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals agreed to a 3-year deal with tight end Mike Gesicki, reportedly for $25.5 million and $12 million in the first year. Jake Liscow and James Rapien get into the impact of bringing Gesicki back to be an extra weapon for Joe Burrow and the passing offense. Plus, we break down the Trey Hendrickson situation as of Saturday morning, including how we got to this point and what to expect in the coming days. Finally, is Tee Higgins in Cincinnati? Could the guys be doing a second bonus/emergency podcast in one day?! We wrap up with the impetus for the Bengals to get that deal done sooner than later.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetterhelpDiscover your relationship “green flags” with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/lockedon today to get 10% off your first month. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Cincinnati Bengals have got a deal done. Mike Keseki returns to Cincinnati on a three-year deal. Let's get into it. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. One up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe. He's your host, James Rupin.

And we are locked on Bengals here on the Lockdown Podcast. podcast network, your team every day. Why are you shaking your head, James? I just think it's funny that people, multiple people told me this morning, stop the dancing. And I was more compelled than ever to dance because of that. I want to dance the whole episode. I would, but it would hurt the audio side because they can't see me dancing. So anyways, the dancing is going nowhere. And neither is Mike Gisickey. Powerful opening statement from my co-host. James Rupin.

The everydayers have seen James dance on this show for years now. If you're new to the show, whether or not you like James dancing, we are the place for you to stay up to date on all things Bengals. You can hit that subscribe button and stay in the loop. And all the Lockdown Bengals Insiders are privy to a lot of extra information around this time of year. So if you're interested in us sharing the things that we can share, when we can share them, you can check that out at join subtext.com slash locked on. Bengals. James, let's dive in today to the news of the day, which is Mike Gaseki resigning with the Cincinnati

Bengals on a three-year deal for the first time. One of these rental tight end experiments from the Cincinnati Bengals is returning. And notably, it's a player that's going into his age 30 season. I am, frankly, James, surprised that the Bengals got this deal done before free agency and that they got the deal done at a number that is something bigger than seven million. million per year, reportedly at $8.5 million per year over three years from Mike Kaseki with $12 million in year one cash flow. That's a very significant deal for the Bengals to give out to a player who is going into their age 30 season. And that's how they got it done. Let's be honest here. Mike Kisicki was arguably the top free agent tight end. And I think they wanted to try to get it

done before free agency. And Mike's like, yeah, I know I have a market. and was willing to test the market, and I think they had to push a bit. And it's similar to, I mean, they pushed for Usama. Like I know the Bengals are known for this, this rental tight end aspect that's worked. And they weren't in on the Haydenhurst, Carolina deal as much. But they tried to keep CJ in Cincinnati,

and he went to New York. And in this scenario, I think they just, they know how well Mike fits. They know the lack of available options. There aren't a bunch of one-year rental options this year in free agency. And so to get him signed, it is, they do deserve credit here. There's going to be a lot of times, I think, during this show, at least when it comes to

Trey Hendrickson, where we might not give them credit. But if Mike Gisicki got to free agency, he's probably gone. And I'm sure they knew that. And so how do you sweeten the pot enough for him, where he enjoys it here? He obviously wants to catch passes from Joe Burrow. He knows what it's like to play in crappy offenses and doesn't want to do that. So sweeten the pot enough for him to where he can sign on the data line and be happy with the result. And they were able to do that.

And so they do deserve credit for that. Gisicki was at times the feature point. I mean, you think about the late in the year when T. Higgins was nicked up. And the offense was kind of funneling through Mike Gisicki at times. and so to have that option, to have a guy that can go out and get you 10 receptions for 100 yards if you need it and be the third option, that's huge. And it really, obviously you have the T part, the Jemar part, but on paper, if you have T, Jemar, Mike Gisicki, and Andre Yosevash, your passing offense from a weapon standpoint, it does feel pretty complete there.

Obviously there is always room to add. but this was a big get and avoids creating a major void and gap in the Bengals offensive passing game. Yeah, I think that it still leaves a hole at tight end where they had Eric All. They still don't have the guy that does what Eric All does. Tanner Hudson also back with the team, by the way. So they'll have a bunch of tight ends that can be receiving tight ends and Drew Sample on the team right now. It's Grandi. It's Grandin Sample.

Yeah, it's like two blockers and two pass catchers. and Tanner McLaughlin and so we'll see what happens if they add another tight end to the roof and two blackers and two pass catchers and Tanner McLaughlin and so we'll see if he could develop

of course and he was not close to seeing the field last year at really any point that that was our understanding of the situation but they might still add to this room is all I'm getting at if they need somebody to fill the Eric Hall roll but when you take a step back and you see

Mike as a wide receiver three in this offense and maybe Yosevaas or whoever steps into the actual wide receiver label is your 3A, 3B kind of situation, then you have a full complement of starting receiving weapons. And Mike Keseki is still a mismatch kind of player because of the size that he plays with, right? The 6-245 and good athleticism that still was present at 29 years old last year. He'll be turning 30 in October this year. So he'll start the season still on the right side of 30 for the Bengals. Maybe that's all it took. But to your point, James, finished a year with a couple of games that totaled 18 targets for about 150 yards in those two games. Had a great game against the Chiefs early in the season, going for seven catches, 91 yards. Obviously had a really nice stretch in the middle of the season as well against Philadelphia and Las Vegas. So when they needed him to step up in some of these games, he was reliable. And, and, very reliable, I would say, when targeted option for this offense. And more of an ancillary option. He's not, you're not generally designing your offense around him, but he does provide

an element when you have T. Higgins and Jemar Chase on the team as well. And we'll get to T later in this show, is there some smoke around T, and he's maybe on a plane right now as we're recording this anyway. The Gaseki piece of this offense as a receiving weapon is a valuable piece for them to get back. And it's important because, as you mentioned earlier, James, I don't know where else they were going with the group red ends available this year, unless they were going to force the pick in the first round. And now there's less pressure on finding a viable receiving tight end option for this offense. Yeah. Evan Ingram might have been the one that was recently released where you could point to him, but there weren't many guys like that. And so keeping Mike, it just,

it eliminates the, oh my goodness, what are you going to do at this spot? And you want the Bengals to get there with all of these spots over the next week, week and a half, two weeks to where it's like, all right, well, this isn't a gaping hole that they have to fill and they probably have to do it with a certain player, certain guy. And that's what this does. So it makes sense to me. It's got to be step one. but and it's important here

the tight end position you know how he fits you know he understands the offense all of those things work and the other part of this because with Irf Smith a lot of it worked from an on paper standpoint and then he got here and they were like oh right you just never know how it's going to work

and so Mike works the other thing that works he's egosless you mentioned like different times during the season where he was a focal point then there are other times where he just kind of drops back and isn't might not be getting targets think about it eric all was picking up steam at one point and then mike took a back seat and it wasn't like it was the mike gisicky show all season the offense wasn't funneling through him but if you need to you can go there and it's very very much

like a tyler boyd in that element and that's how i would view it is a the bengals have this third pass catching option and you hope andre yosovash continues to develop and takes another step forward. But regardless, you have Mike Kaseki who can come in and hold down that role and also be egoless if it is the Jamar Chase show for five weeks and then the T. Higgins show for five weeks, which is a big, big factor, I would say. Yeah, we will wrap up the conversation here on the tight end spot because I do want to reiterate that there is still a hole on this roster at tight end, in my opinion, that they could still use something else there. I don't know if that will happen this year or not. Then we'll take some time to talk about what's

happened with Trey Hendrickson. We weren't able to talk you and I, James, the day that news broke. I was recording with Joe Goodberry that day. We were planning to do a whole show on free agents. We had to scrap it and do a whole new show that was more focused on Tray. So we'll get some updates there. We'll talk a little bit about T. Higgins, potentially being on a plane as well as we continue this bonus episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast coming up next. This is a message from our sponsor, Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was waiting and wondering and worrying if you were going to get any money back and then waiting, wondering, and worrying some more. Sounds like Bengals fans and free agency. Now taxes is matching with a TurboTax expert

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Only available with TurboTax Live full service, real-time updates only in iOS mobile app. See guaranteed details at turbotax.com slash guarantees. I don't mean to diminish the potential emergence of Cam Grandi here, James. or the importance of bringing Mike Keseki back as that third receiving option. But I do just want to reiterate the point that with Eric Hall's injury, the element that I'm still looking for this team to find a tight end is that piece that can do what Eric Al did. Who can do both.

And whether they find that in this draft and offseason or not remains to be seen, but it would be nice to have a piece like that again, who can do some blocking for you and give you something a little bit extra as a receiver compared to what they got out of Drew Sample and Cam Grandi in that role. And I liked what Grandi did. Don't get me wrong. But a little bit more dynamism there, if they can find opportunity to add it so they can get back to 12 personnel a little bit more comfortably with a little bit more dynism in those 12 personnel sets would be welcome. That's the only thing I'm going to say about the still remaining to me potential need at the tight end position.

Yeah, they can still take a tight end. They could still take a tight end at 17. Right guys there and they do like that. I don't think it changes necessarily their future plans, but what it does is it is it calms the water to where they don't have to force it. But to your point, in an ideal world, would you have a guy that can do both that can block, that could catch, that can do everything that you thought Eric Al was going to continue to develop into? Yeah, that would be the complete tight end is really, really hard to find.

The Bengals know it. It's why they've been hesitant at times, I think, to address it in the draft. They did with Eric All. They were really high on him, and you saw why. Now, if that guy emerges in the draft, makes sense. I still would pencil them in for a tight end, but they probably aren't going to address tight in and free agency now. I don't necessarily think they need to do that.

And so now you can go into the draft. And from a tight end perspective, try to find that perfect match if he's there. And if he's not, you know you have guys. that you can work with and do what they've done, which is run the 11 personnel and really treat Mike Gaseki like a receiver. Because I do think that that's what they'll ultimately have to do if they don't add a guy that can do both.

I think we will still see 12 stuff with Grandi and or sample and Gaseki as the other piece of the 12, Grandi sample being one of them, Gaseki being the other. I think we will still see some of that. But again, with Eric All and Gaseki, it's a different group. Or Eric All and Cam Grandi or Drew Sample, and I'm talking a lot about Cam Grandy here, much more than I expected when we sat down and record this, James. The Cam Grandy show. Different people.

How about we talk about Trey Hendrickson? Yeah, let's pivot here. Who's worth more to the Bengals? Cam Grandy or Trey Hendrickson? I'm just not going to answer that question because I don't think there's a way I can do it. It's not going to piss somebody off. Trey Hendrickson has obviously been granted permission for a trade. We talked about that.

Joe and I did in our most recent episode of Lockdown Bengals. We spent a lot of time on it there. James, you and I haven't had a chance to talk about it on air yet. Obviously, we've talked about it a lot off air. I'll just let you give this story essentially of how we got to this point and where it is now. Ian Rappaport, the most recent update. on Saturday was that it doesn't necessarily seem like

the Bengals were getting a bunch of first round pickoffers, which isn't very surprising. But that's the only real news, I would say, Saturday. So James, I'll stop talking now, and you can tell us what you know. There's a lot here. Look, Tray wants to be, I think Trey would still sign with the Bengals today.

Like, I don't think that he burned the bridge, here. I think that the offers were where the offers were to where he felt compelled to come up to Cincinnati on Thursday and ask for the right to negotiate with other teams to see his worth. And the Bengals are letting him do that. And I don't think that there's a realistic scenario where he returns as a Bengal. I know there's been a lot of speculation. Andrew Whitworth said, oh, well, he's finding out his value and then the Bengals can. No, you don't do that if you're making a reasonable offer. And I think, I think that's, that's it. Like, let's say the Bengals were offering 30 million per year. Well, clearly they value Trey at a really high level if they're doing that,

right? And they want Trey around. Let's say they're offering two-year, $60 million deal, $30 million per year on an extension. They are not going to let him then talk to the rest of the league. It's just, it's not what you would do. You'd say, oh, well, we're close. Let's get to the table here and let's figure this out. Is it structure or what is it? the issue is they weren't close. And Shrey was like, all right, well, we're not close. We're clearly not close. Will you please, after four seasons, let me see if someone else values me the way I think my value is?

And that's why we're here. So this idea that he's going to go to the market, a market that I'm sure his agent last week at the combine canvas, and come back to the Bengals saying, you're right. Your offer was the best. It's never going to happen. Like, that's not going to happen. Now, the path to him returning, and I do think it's pretty slim, is the Bengals look at the Falcons and the commanders and all these other teams that are reportedly interested in Trey. And they say, you know what, Trey, we do value you.

And they make a stronger offer. I think that could still happen. And Trey's side of things, I'm not sure if the Bengals are even remotely close to wanting to do that. I think Trey would be open to that. So could they salvage this? I think they could, but the only way to do that is with a higher offer. And I think all signs point to a trade. And that's probably going to be a second round pick, which we talked about why you don't trade them.

Part of it is because you're not going to get a ton for him. We talked about that weeks ago. And that's probably where the Bengals are at now. And I think the only way to avoid it being messy if he does return would be upping their offer. and I'm just not sure that they're going to be willing to do that because they gave him trade permission, which is something that they've literally, I'm not sure they've ever done that, to be honest with you.

I don't believe they've ever done it, at least as far as I know. As far as my memory goes, they've not given permission to seek trades. Not for a player of this caliber who's under contract. Typically in this situation, what the Bengals do is they say you're under contract. You're going to honor your contract. Yep.

And here they've got enough respect for the player to let them go suss things out and see if they can find an offer that the Bengals will take and hopefully it doesn't get uglier. But I am 100% aligned with you on the fact that the only way this changes is that the Bengals up their offer. From Ari Myrov's reporting to your own reporting, James, they're far off, they're not close, a borderline insulting offer, the words that Ari Maherav used,

continues to point to a disturbing trend for the Bengals recently with some of their own good players, Jesse Bates, T. Higgins, the first time they negotiated, even DJ Reader last year to a much lesser extent, the primary examples being Bates and T. They're just not close enough. The offers they're making are not strong enough. And while I do think that it's incumbent on the agent

to not get lost in the sauce and be like, oh, that's an insulting offer. We're not going to talk to you anymore and not just shut things down. If you try to engage in good faith with those offers and the Bengals just simply don't move enough to get close, I don't know what else the agent is supposed to do. And then it is on the team.

And I think this is squarely on the team for offering a number that just isn't good enough. And you got to stop doing that. I mean, I remember James, I sat on this podcast and I told you they can't do this again. They can't go out there and low ball players to this extent again. And here we are. And I don't know exact money or anything like that.

What I do know is it's not in the $30 million ball. It's not like they're at like 29 and a half or 29 or 28 and a half. And with incentives he could get to 30. Like all of those numbers that we threw out there to the everydayers that have listed. Like the 28 million per, I don't think that was even that. I don't think they were there, to be quite honest. And that's where I would have been. I said it at the combine in front of people that would have hurt.

Like, that's where I would have been probably. And so I'm not sure they even ended there. So that's what's tough, I would say. And we'll see. But it doesn't feel like Trey Hendrickson's going to be back, which does put the pressure. on the T. Higgins element of it. Is T. Higgins flying to Cincinnati?

It's flight tracking season. We'll get to that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul. Fandul, what's America's number one sports book? And March Madness is here. Of course, my Cincinnati Bearcats aren't going to partake in March Madness because apparently they're allergic to it now.

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I do know T. Higgins was training with David Alexander in Miami. It makes sense that he would fly back to Cincinnati, what for? I think that's the interesting part of it. But yeah, private flight, T. Higgins to Sinci. I mean, it lines up with what the timeline should be, Jake. A lot of things line up. Like if the Bengals wanted to get a deal done with T and they were close, I would bring him in to try to get this done before Monday at noon.

When the, it's not called legal tampering period anymore. It's called negotiating window. It was never called legal tampering period, to be fair. That was a media label that the league probably took issue with, and that's what it became. But it's always been, yeah, like a negotiating window. So the negotiating window opens. Free agency, the new league year should just open Monday at noon. There's just no reason for it.

It's very weird because it is essentially when all the deals are decided for major agents. So anyways, whatever you want to call it, teams can start signing guys noon on Monday. So the Bengals would love to have their cap space in order and have an idea. of what T. Higgins is going to look like on the books for 2025 so they can spend it elsewhere. And that should be a really big goal of theirs. And if you're T. Higgins, why wouldn't you want to get this long-term deal done and in place now? I think that I think there's a chance that happens, but you've got to get it over the finish line. It's one of these things, man, these big deals. I feel more optimistic about this certainly than I do Trey. I think Trey, a trade is far

by far the most likely option, an extension for T could happen. And honestly, both should happen in the next 48-ish hours so they can have tray off the books, if that's the route they're going to go, so they can have an idea of what T looks like. That would be an ideal scenario, I think, Jake. Yeah, I think getting these things done sooner than later makes a world of sense from a financial clarity perspective and what kind of return are you getting for Trey Hendrickson perspective? What can you reasonably expect to add with the draft capital you get in return? Is there a player that you get back?

And I don't think that's likely to be clear, but is there a player plus pick package that the Bengals are entertaining for Tray Hendrickson perhaps? And if that makes sense, then that will reshape your priorities to some degree in free agency, just like the Micahaseki resigning shapes your priorities in free agency a little bit. So we'll see what else happens between now and the start of that negotiating window, between now and the start of the new league year when all teams have to be cap compliant and all of these deals become official, although Mike Keseki's deal can become official today because he's resigning with the team. So that is allowed to be official, not just an agreed-to-terms thing.

But we're going to have to see how a lot of things play out here. This is the time, James, between now and Monday and then between Monday and Wednesday, that we should expect to see the Bengals getting deals done. with the guys that they want to bring back. And Mike Kisaki is the first of those. We'll see if there are any others. And T. Higgins is the biggest fish. And Jamar Chase extension, of course, out there as well.

And hopefully that comes together as soon as possible as well. There are reasons for all of these things to happen sooner than later if you're the Bengals. And now we're just watching and waiting. It does feel like, like I think part of why they did the tray part of this is, their priorities are Jamar and T, of course. Like, I could see those coming together pretty quickly here. Like, Jamar is, we have an idea of what it's going to look like. So why would it take that long?

And I think maybe same agency, it's like, yeah, we'll get that done, but get my guy T done. And I wonder, I don't know, but I wonder if that's what you do if you're Jamar. You know what, like, Jamar knows what he's going to make. Like, we have a really good idea. You don't want to leave T hanging, given the history and the track record there, when the goal would be to get him done, too. So I just, I wonder, maybe they'll hit us with both. I would be shocked by that, but it could happen. Yeah, maybe we'll have to reconvene tonight.

I have a games night plan tonight. We know. Oh, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. Yeah, I have plans this afternoon. So. So we'll see if James. For sure.

For sure, going to have to be back. we're for sure going to have to be back. Yeah. But that's why we're here. We'll see if James and I are reconvening. That is why we're here. Indeed, that's why you're always here with us on Locked-on Bengals, as we continue to have you covered with the things that we can share as we can share them.

Of course, you can check out the insider group as well. Join subtext.com slash Locked-on Bengals. That's going to do it for this bonus episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Ho-Day. Have a good one.