The Buccaneers overhauled their front-office today, promoting Dennis Hickey to Director of Player Personnel, moving Mike Greenberg from Pro Personnel Assistant to Coordinator of Football Administration and Tony Kinkela to College Scout from Combine Scout. In addition, they've hired Bill Rees as college Scout, Tony Hardie as Combine Scout and Rob McCartney as Pro Personnel Assistant. While none of the latter moves really mean anything to me, Dennis Hickey's promotion is worth talking about.
Dennis Hickey has led a scouting department that has done a terrific job finding talent for the team in these past three years. Although he has led and been a part of scouting departments that have done poorly in that aspect in the years under Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen, the performance of the Bucs on draft day since 2009 reflects well on Hickey, and he has seemingly earned this promotion. That said, college scouting and roster evaluation and pro scouting are different animals, and it's no given that Hickey will excel at his new position. Still, this seems like a good move to bind a good talent evaluator to the team.