What’s tougher turning an NFL roster upside down or just fine-tuning it?

Lions general manager Martin Mayhew expects it to be the latter.

Remember this is the guy who took the job on an interim basis early during the 0-16 season in 2008. He’s been to the depths and responded well through the draft, trades and free agency.

Now it’s a different beast. He’s built a 10-6 team that made it to the playoffs, but knows there’s plenty of work to do. He has key players to re-sign, free agents to explore and a draft to prepare for.

“We took a big step obviously, when you look at the six teams in the NFC (playoffs) we lost to four of them. We’ve got some work to do to get to take the next step, but it was a big step for us this year,’’ Mayhew said. “I was impressed with the effort of our players, I thought our coaches did a great job coaching those guys.

“I thought it was good to get in the playoffs, it was good experience for us even though we didn’t go beyond that first week. I think that experience being in that game this year is going to help us next year be even better,’’ Mayhew added.

Perhaps the Lions can take something else into next season. When it was all said and done, the Lions finished with the same playoff record as the Packers at 0-1.

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