For six straight years, the Buffalo Bills' special teams units - coached in that span by Bobby April - rated in the top four of Rick Gosselin's annual special teams rankings. They finished first in that listing three times, including in 2008.
This year, Buffalo's special teams - coordinated by Bruce DeHaven, returning to the organization for the first time since the Music City Miracle - fell all the way to No. 27 in Gosselin's rankings, according to Allen Wilson of The Buffalo News.
It wasn't all bad for the Bills. They had one of the league's best special teams gunners in George Wilson, and according to the data Wilson cites from Gosselin, the Bills had respectable finishes in covering kicks and returning punts. Still, both kickers (Rian Lindell and Brian Moorman) had down years, the kick return units were spotty at best, and several mistakes and penalties helped the team lose big games.
It will be interesting to see if DeHaven - who had never worked with Chan Gailey prior to the season, and who has not had a solid special teams unit in quite some time - makes it to a third year if the Bills don't see drastic improvement in this area in 2011.