The NFC champion Carolina Panthers slogged to a 7-8-1 record last year, before finding magic this year. The Panthers won their last four games of the 2014 regular season to squeak into the postseason. Then they rocketed out of the gate in 2015, winning their first 14 games of the regular season en route to the Super Bowl.
What do the 2014 Panthers and the 2015 Bills have in common?
They can both point to having important pieces in place on the roster, even though they produced mediocre results. For the Panthers, those pieces came together the following year in a Super Bowl run.