As busy as Buffalo has been in the early days of the free agency period recruiting new players to the roster, they haven't forgotten to address some of their own free agents that they wanted to return to the fold. On Thursday they took care of one of them re-signing Marcus Easley to a multi-year deal.
"Coming back to Buffalo was always option number one," Easley told Buffalobills.com. "The interest was mutual on both sides. Doug (Whaley) told me that he wanted to bring me back. There was never any doubt that I wanted to come here."
Easley, 27, a special teams coverage ace for the Bills the past two seasons, led the Bills in special teams tackles in 2013 and 2014. In fact he led the league in special teams tackles in 2013 and likely would have contended for that title again last season were it not for a knee injury that kept him out of the lineup for six games.
Even though there was a coaching change at the top this offseason special teams coordinator Danny Crossman was retained, which played a factor in Easley's desire to return.
"That meant a lot to me knowing that Crossman was in my corner," said Easley. "He's been in my corner since he got here. He made it a point to keep me here and things didn't change when I became a free agent. For him to have my back along with the success we've had there's no doubt that I wanted to be here."
With Easley now back in the fold he keeps intact a strong special teams core that includes veterans Boobie Dixon, Corey Graham and Marcus Thigpen for their coverage and return units for a special teams unit that finished second in the league overall.
"All those guys and me still being around, we were second overall (last year), but there's still one more rank we can go," Easley said. "We want to be number one across the board and we've got the personnel to do so."
There are many stories of perseverance in the NFL. But perhaps none as complete as WR Marcus Easley's path to the pros.
