Why Mike Gesicki's comment about Joe Burrow's talent isn't a slight on Tua Tagovailoa

New Cincinnati Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki told the team’s website that he has never played with the kind of talent that he sees in quarterback Joe Burrow, but before anyone takes that as a slight to Tua Tagovailoa, they should take a deep breath.

First, Gesicki’s fresh comments.

Gesicki, 28, just joined the Bengals on a one-year deal after an unproductive season in New England. Rewind to just 2021 and Gesicki was putting up 780 yards and two touchdowns with the Dolphins. That year, he caught 73 passes, more than his past two seasons combined. When asked if he can get back to his top form in Cincinnati, he replied, “I would like to think so.”

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It helps to have a Pro Bowl quarterback like Burrow and Gesicki knows it, saying he has “never been in the huddle with that kind of talent.”

While that may cause waves in South Florida, especially with the TuAnon crowd, it shouldn’t.

For one thing, while Gesicki naturally played with Tagovailoa in Miami, he didn’t play with Pro Bowl quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He played with future Pro Bowl quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Need we say there’s a difference?

But there’s a bigger reason. And for that, you’ll have to go back to a stormy Wednesday in May when the Dolphins had just come off the practice field in Davie after offseason training. The pandemic was still going on, so Gesicki was speaking on Zoom to reporters hoping lightning wouldn’t strike their canopy. He was asked a rather innocent question about why Tagovailoa — who was only coming off his rookie season — doesn’t seem to get rattled.

Lightning struck, all right, but it was from Gesicki.

For nine minutes, he fired digs at the media, highlighted by a complaint over why his QB had to deal with “stupid, uneducated stuff” said about him.

It was raw.

It was entertaining.

It was juicy.

“I think if you look at his past career dating all the way back to college, I think he’s been put in big positions and made plays,” Gesicki said. “He’s dealt with adversity, whether it’s injury or whatever it may be, fought back from that. He’s also dealt with people saying stupid, uneducated stuff about him that they’re not right about. So he’s dealing with that and he’s continuing to work and continuing to come in here each and every day and I’m happy that he’s our quarterback.”

Gesicki had barely even warmed up.

“The problem with the criticism is there’s nothing behind it,” he said. “The kid came in here and people were already calling for him. He played nine games and he did a lot of really good things for us, stepped up in big situations, made plays and I think got better each and every week.”

Gesicki’s broader point was to give the guy time. He compared it to his own situation, saying as a rookie, “I don’t think I did a damn thing to make a play.” Gesicki went from being a second-round pick with 202 yards in Year 1 to a polished threat with 703 and six TDs in Year 3. If you’re charting Tagovailoa’s progress, his yardage by year: 1,814, 2,653, 3,548 and 4,624.

With his career arc trending this way, Tagovailoa doesn’t need teammates defending him, although it’s nice when they do. There’s an unwritten rule in the NFL that teammates praise teammates in public and share criticism in private.

So no one should take it as Gesicki slighting his former QB when he praises his current one.

"He's been a leader in the locker room who a lot of guys look to,” Gesicki said of Burrow. “I'm definitely one of those guys looking to him. I've heard great things about him as a teammate. He's easy to talk to. Good sense of humor."

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Why Mike Gesicki was NOT slighting Tua Tagovailoa with ‘talent' quote