Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News recently published his annual rankings of NFL special teams units.  The rankings, based on 22 different kicking game categories, assigns points for each category, with the best team finishing with the lowest amount of points.

This year, Philadelphia finished first where they have been for two of the last three seasons.  Detroit was second, followed by Kansas City, the Rams and Baltimore.  San Diego’s units were the lowest ranked.

If there was any doubt about the importance of special teams, seven of the top 11 special teams units made the playoffs.