The Dolphins finally have a General Manager. And the team can confidently say he wasn’t their second choice.
He was their third. And perhaps lower.
Regardless, Buccaneers director of player personnel Dennis Hickey has accepted the position, according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald.
An 18-year employee of the Buccaneers, he became the director of player personnel under G.M. Mark Dominik in 2011. Hickey wasn’t considered for the team’s recently-filled G.M. job.
Hickey gets a clean slate with the Dolphins, and his job will entail more than merely finding players via the draft and free agency. He’ll now have to navigate a potential mine field in Miami, tiptoeing around established relationships, finding a way to coexist with assistant G.M. Brian Gaine (who was a finalist for the job) and trying to enhance the reputation and perception of the football operation after a string of embarrassments.
Like many General Managers, Hickey may want to hire his own coach, eventually. The better approach for owner Stephen Ross would be to tell Hickey, coach Joe Philbin, and executive V.P. of football administration Dawn Aponte that they’re all in this equally -- and that if the team continues to struggle, everyone is getting fired the next time.
UPDATE 11:42 a.m. ET: The Dolphins have announced that Hickey has become the team’s new G.M.