ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- This is one of the tougher parts of the job for Jim Caldwell.

The Detroit Lions coach and the team’s front office has to spend part of the next week paring the roster down, first to 75 players by Tuesday and then to an initial 53-man roster by Saturday. To do so, he knows he will end up changing the lives of players involved -- both positively and negatively.

“It’s tough on these guys, a difficult situation,” Caldwell said. “It’s not one of these things where we’re flippant about it. We look at these things closely and make the best decision we can and move forward.”

Those decisions will be close -- and hard to make. That starts at wide receiver, where Caldwell did not indicate if any receivers made a huge impression Friday night against Jacksonville to break the logjam behind Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate and, likely, Corey Fuller.

“The ones that stand out are the ones that we keep,” Caldwell said. “That’s how we look at it. It’s a competition, you know. It’s not Disneyland. It’s difficult.”

For many of the players on the roster bubble, making the Lions would be the football equivalent of reaching Disneyland. Besides receiver, there are spots along the defensive line, offensive line and at linebacker that still feel like they are in question.

What the Lions do with Zach Zenner, George Winn and Emil Igwenagu is another question. So, too, is how the Lions handle third string quarterback Kellen Moore.

This was a question last season, Caldwell’s first with the Lions. Caldwell kept only two quarterbacks the majority of his time in Indianapolis, but the Lions held on to Matthew Stafford, Dan Orlovsky and Moore last season.

That seemed to be the initial plan this season as well, but Moore has not played as well as he did last preseason and the Lions have a bunch of other positions with tight competitions. So it might not be as beneficial to keep a third quarterback, especially since Stafford has also been largely healthy the last four seasons.

“It just depends, how many we keep depends on what our roster looks like,” Caldwell said. “There’s some situations where we got some guys that are some pretty talented spots. Our wideouts, we have a heavy group of guys that are very, very good. Our running backs, heavy group of guys that can play the game. There are a number of different spots so you have to look at it and weigh it out and balance it and see how you want to shape it.”

Caldwell said the Lions have had discussions about shaping their 2015 roster since the spring. Caldwell said injuries -- the Lions have starters banged up on the defensive line, offensive line and running back -- could play a factor based on the team’s needs.

So when the Lions start to shake out their final initial roster, all of this comes into play.

“You can’t keep everybody that you have that’s performing well,” Caldwell said. “You have to make certain that it’s the best 53 for us, let’s put it that way. That’s what counts.”