Buffalo Bills hire Dennis Hickey, former Dolphins GM, to key position
By Connor Price
The Buffalo Bills have a new Senior College Scout in Dennis Hickey.
Buffalo Bills fans re confident in the group of players newly acquired in the 2017 NFL Draft. Tre’Davious White, Zay Jones, and other standouts are gearing up for mini camp and preseason — and no one could be happier.
Let’s not forget about the reason the Bills got these guys. Each NFL team has a plethora of scouts in charge of different areas of the country. An opinion from the head or senior scout could be the difference of missing out on a star player in the draft, or picking a bust.
Check out Buffalo’s three biggest draft busts here!
Current Buffalo General Manager, Brandon Beane, added a slew of talent to the staff on Friday. Five different positions were filled, including pro scout, west, and midwest collegiate scout.
Curtis Rukavina is the new pro scout. Rukavina last worked for the Toronto Argonauts as the Director of Player Personnel.
Doug Majeski has been name the scout for the west region. Majeski will enter his 28th season with the Buffalo Bills according to BuffaloBills.com.
Dennis Hickey
Hickey was out of a job in 2016 after being let go from division rival, the Miami Dolphins, the year prior. After multiple unsuccessful seasons as the Dolphins General Manager, he was fired. He lost the job after being beaten out by Mike Tannenbaum and Chris Grier.
The first thing Hickey did with the Dolphins was the further development of a football analytics program. Analytics is not on the forefront in football as it is in some other sports, but of course it is up and coming.
The new Senior College Scout worked for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 18 years prior to his hire with the Dolphins. All 18 of those years dealt with player personnel/college scouting.
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A few of Hickey’s notable draft picks include Jarvis Landry, Jay Ajayi and Ja’waun James.
Brandon Beane is working on building a team of experienced all-stars to assist with personnel decisions, and hiring a former GM can’t hurt. Although it wasn’t the most successful run, Hickey has been through the ringer.
According to Pro Football Talk, Hickey has prior connections to the Bills:
“Hickey has a connection to Bills assistant G.M. Joe Schoen; they worked in Miami at the same time. Hickey also has a connection, sort of, to Bills director of player personnel Brian Gaine. After Hickey was hired to be the Miami G.M., Gaine left the Dolphins for the Texans.”
Hickey is just one of many who held past executive positions and are looking to dive back in the personnel game.
As long as the staff all has one collective goal, there should be no discrepancies.
Playoffs.
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