What a difference a year makes.
The Buffalo Bills had one of the NFL's worst special-teams units in 2013, an across-the-board problem that included poor punting from Shawn Powell and Brian Moorman, shaky kickoffs from Dan Carpenter and a lack of capable coverage men.
Re-stocked in 2014 with first-year punter Colton Schmidt, a kickoff specialist in Jordan Gay and the addition of special-teams mavens Larry Dean, Corey Graham and Anthony Dixon, the Bills were near the top of the NFL in most special-teams categories this past season.
The dramatic improvement didn't go unnoticed. Well-respected Dallas Morning News columnist Rick Gosselin, who has used a formula to rank special-teams units for decades, has pegged the Bills as having the NFL's second-best special teams in 2014.
Last year, they were 31st in Gosselin's rankings.
With those sorts of results, it's hard to argue with Rex Ryan's decision to keep special-teams coordinator Danny Crossman in the fold.
