After more than 3,500 yards, 325 catches, 22 touchdowns, 11 starting quarterbacks and seven offensive coordinators in seven NFL seasons, Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki came down with the biggest ball yet Saturday when he hauled in a reported three-year deal from the team that believed.

Now there's one more target hanging up there for Gesicki and his Bengals.

"Everybody's goal in Cincinnati is to compete for a championship, and that's another reason I wanted to come back,' said Gesicki, expected to sign a deal as soon as Monday for what reports say is $25.5 million and what he calls "a life-changing day for me and my family."

"The Bengals have done some incredible things for me and I'm grateful to Mike Brown, Katie (Blackburn) and the front office for getting together and getting something done."

With free agency looming Monday, Bengals director of pro scouting Steven Radicevic concluded talks with Gesicki's people Saturday morning as the Bengals knocked off one of their priorities 48 hours before the gate goes up.

But the seeds were sown back in December, even before Gesicki ended the season with 18 catches in the last two win-or-else games of the season. Before he finished the year with 65 catches, most by a Bengals tight end since the iconic 71 of Dan Ross in '81.

It was the week after the Dec. 15 win in Tennessee when head coach Zac Taylor told Gesicki that the Bengals and Pro Bowl quarterback Joe Burrow wanted him back. For a guy ending his third straight season on a one-year deal on the NFL's top-rated passing offense, Taylor's words were all he ever wanted to hear.

"It's been, 'Prove it, prove it, prove it.' I just wanted to get in the right situation with a coach that believes in me and a quarterback that believes in me and I found that in Cincinnati," Gesicki said. "With Zac and Joe, why go anywhere else?"

It was a two-way street. If Gesicki, 29, had been looking to play catch with the same quarterback, Burrow won't mind throwing to the same top two receiving tight ends from the year before. With Gesicki and Tanner Hudson in the fold, Burrow pretty much gets to do that for the first time since his first two seasons.

Gesicki found out just how much Burrow wanted him when he and wife Halle were sitting on their couch last month listening to a Burrow interview. When Burrow listed what he saw as the team's priorities, Gesicki checked with Halle to make sure he heard right.

"Did he just say my name?" he asked.

The 6-6 Gesicki emerged as a comforting mismatch for Burrow negotiating a maze of coverages. More than half his catches went for first downs, and a third of them came on third down. The chemistry was immediate. Burrow said so, and Gesicki is grateful.

"I'll be forever indebted to Joe Burrow and what he's done for my career and how he's talked about me," Gesicki said. "I've said from day one. He's one of one and that's a big reason I wanted to come back to Cincinnati."

Burrow let him know Saturday he's happy, too.

"He got in touch," Gesicki said. "Joe's a man of very few words, but when he speaks, it's meaningful. He was excited."

Usually after the season, the Gesickis vacation on a beach somewhere. This year, they went to the mountains in Switzerland.

"We saw some snow. Polar opposite," said Gesicki on a day his world changed.