CINCINNATI — During his Super Bowl week media car wash, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was stumping for teammates to get paid and rattled off the usual suspects — wide receivers Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase, and defensive end Trey Hendrickson.

Then he slipped another name into the mix: Mike G.

That was the name used for Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki.

Gesicki is the latest Bengals tight end to sign with the team on a one-year deal. After a productive season in Cincinnati — 65 catches, 665 yards and 2 TDs — he is set to enter free agency. This is usually when players cash in with big contracts with other teams. But if the Bengals have the money to bring him back, that could be an underrated but notable victory.

“That guy was so valuable for us all year, and a guy that, in my opinion, we need to bring back,” Burrow said on Jan. 4 after the final game of the season.

Cincinnati received full value on the 1-year deal worth $2.5 million that Gesicki signed last offseason. The seventh-year player out of Penn State finished 10th among all tight ends last season in receiving yards with his highest total since 2021.

But it’s tough to look at Gesicki’s value based of sheer production. In some offenses, the tight end is one of the primary targets for a quarterback. The last few years in Cincinnati, that position has been a complementary piece surrounding Chase and Higgins, one of the league’s most dynamic receiver pairings.

The team-based metrics tell a different story, however. Last season, the Bengals finished eighth in the NFL in points per drive. And Gesicki played a key role for a team that started the year in uncharted territory.

For the previous four years, dating back to when the Bengals drafted Chase, Cincinnati’s wide receivers had very defined roles, with veteran Tyler Boyd lining up exclusively in the slot. But after Boyd wasn’t re-signed in free agency, the Bengals had more offensive flexibility. That meant putting Chase at various spots along the formation and also using more sets with two tight ends.

Enter Gesicki. While he is officially a tight end, he unofficially served as the team’s No. 3 wide receiver. And with teams paying so much attention to Chase and Higgins, the Bengals used Gesicki to exploit matchups at the right time.

During the season, offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said Gesicki is built differently compared to other tight ends the Bengals have had. Among the four tight ends the Bengals have featured most recently, Gesicki is taller than the other four (6-foot-6) and weighed just three pounds less (247) when measured at the combine. But he also had a far superior vertical jump (41.5 inches) and bested the rest in all speed and agility drills (4.54 seconds in the 40-yard dash, 6.76 seconds in the three-cone drill).

As Pitcher pointed out in December, Gesicki puts defenses in a tough spot. But perhaps more importantly, he has developed a very strong rapport with Burrow.

“There’s just a major trust that’s been established with Joe that Mike is going to win in one-on-one situations,” Pitcher said. “That sounds simple, but, man, it takes time to really trust a guy to do that, and then he’s going to make difficult catches.”

Ever since Burrow was drafted with the No. 1 pick in 2020, Cincinnati has made marginal investments into the tight end position. According to data from OverTheCap.com, Cincinnati has paid tight ends an estimated $6.4 million in guaranteed money. That is by far the lowest in the league. To put that in perspective, two previous Bengals tight ends — C.J. Uzomah (2015-21) and Hayden Hurst (2022) — earned $28 million in guaranteed money on their first post-Bengals contracts.

If Gesicki has a similar market to those who have flipped 1-year stints with Cincinnati into big paydays, that could make re-signing him trickier for the Bengals. Cincinnati is already facing big decisions on three premier players — Chase, Higgins and Hendrickson.

But as far as Burrow is concerned, Mike G. deserves his money, too.