Martin Mayhew: Lions will be better team for 'a lot of reasons'

By foxsports
Published

General manager Martin Mayhew has officially set the bar for the 2015 Detroit Lions.

Last year, the first under head coach Jim Caldwell, the Lions posted a respectable 11-5 record and qualified for the postseason. This year, Mayhew expects the team to be even better, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press:

Certainly you want to improve your team every season and I think we're going to be a better football team for a lot of reasons. But the turnover is really based on performance. It's a meritocracy, as Jim (Caldwell) always says. And you have situations where you have, in this camp in particular, you get a number of guys who really were depth or guys that would come in and compete for spots.

The new players on Detroit's roster this season include All-Pro defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, rookie running back Ameer Abdullah and pass-catching tight end Timothy Wright. Quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receivers Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate are among the key holdovers from last season; defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is the one big loss.

The factors that lead Mayhew to believe the Lions will improve in 2015 are the team's growing familiarity with the system and connectivity with each other. The GM explained the dynamic, via the Detroit Free Press:

But yeah, I like this football team. I like the work ethic of this football team, I like the camaraderie. These guys get along very well. Very close-knit team. I think second year in the offensive and defensive system's going to be very good for us on both sides of the ball. So I'm excited about seeing how this season goes.

After losing a close game to the Dallas Cowboys in last year's Wild Card round, the Lions are now expected to return and make a little more noise in this year's playoffs.

(h/t Detroit Free Press)