Mike Gesicki Week 2 Outlook - Bengals at Browns

By Mike Tagliere (FantasyPros), Thu, Sep 17th 2020, 9:17am EDT

Despite him being listed as the No. 2 tight end on the depth chart, Gesicki led the tight ends in snaps by a wide margin. He was on the field for 45-of-62 plays, including 31 pass plays while no other tight end was in on more than two. He saw five targets against the Patriots, which netted three catches for 30 yards. While the target number is fine, he's going to need more than that to produce against this defense. Look no further than last year when he posted 4/41/0 and 4/18/0 against them on a total of 10 targets. There were just two tight ends who finished better than the TE10 against them last season, and just one who topped 48 yards. So, it's kind of touchdown-or-bust for tight ends against them, unless a big play is made. That's an issue for Gesicki who has averaged just 6.37 yards per target over his career. If DeVante Parker sits, like we're expecting him to, we could see six-plus targets for Gesicki, but in this matchup, he's a high-end TE2, at best.