Former Syracuse offensive lineman Sean Hickey spoke to members of the media on Tuesday on his career at Syracuse, experience throughout this Draft process, and his plans for the NFL Draft itself. Here’s what he had to say:
Q. What workouts have you done for NFL teams so far?
A. I’ve had eight private individual workouts and all with the offensive line coaches. They would come to Syracuse or Pittsburgh and do certain workouts with you, going over schemes and certain things, and then you would go on to do a workout with drills and those types of things. It all went extremely well, and I can’t be more happy with how this turned out.
Q. Are you hearing that teams want you as an offensive tackle or an offensive guard?
A. I’ve heard both. Some teams have said I can be a tackle and can swing to guard if they need me to. In some cases I’m a guard that can go out and play tackle. All of the teams believe I’m a versatile player and can if need be play four positions on the offensive line. So they feel that it’s an asset to have and it improves my value since I can play either guard or either tackle in that situation if they need me.
» Related: 2014 Syracuse football season in review
Q. Are you glad you stayed for your senior season at Syracuse?
A. I’m definitely still happy that I stayed. Primarily, when I made the decision to stay, I wanted to make sure wherever I went in my rookie year that I was going to be physically the best I can be, and I definitely feel that. Going back and watching all the games from 2013 and then all of the games from 2014, I was definitely a little quicker in my sets and a little quicker in the run game and I was bigger. I was definitely happy with my decision, especially because I got to develop my lower body a little bit more. Early on in my career when I was there, I was dealing with lower body injuries, so I couldn’t develop my lower body as fast as my upper body. I definitely still think it was the right decision and I hope it pays off whenever I get into camp. I had a great time in my last year with my teammates. We didn’t get the results we wanted, and that was for multiple reasons, but one last year at Syracuse developing and being with my teammates was worth it.
Q. What are your thoughts on the current state of the SU program?
A. I think once Coach (Tim) Lester gets into camp and gets the offense to where they need to go… the one thing we lacked last year that we had in years’ prior is that we lacked an identity. We were never able to find what we were really good at. There would be some times in games where we would run a couple of plays and they would really work, but then we’d get away from them in game situations. And with the quarterback carousel going on, it’s hard to get a rhythm with all of the injuries. It was hard to find an identity. In 2014, we weren’t able to do that, and that’s where coach Lester is really going to do a good job knowing exactly what they’re good at, and how they’re going to attack.
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