Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
	Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher says he wants to "retool" not "overhaul" the team.

Unless they leave on their own for pastures greener or otherwise, the Steelers' coaching staff will return intact for 2004 despite a 6-10 record that tied the team's second-worst finish in the past 34 years.

Coach Bill Cowher said, "I don't foresee making any moves at this point." No sooner had he said it than the Steelers gave permission to Falcons officials to interview offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey for the head coaching job in Atlanta.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank and general manager Rich McKay will interview Mularkey in Pittsburgh, possibly tomorrow. It will be the fourth time Mularkey has interviewed for a head coaching job in the past two years, and he could be a candidate for one or two other jobs in the NFL. After the 2001 season, McKay interviewed him for the job in Tampa Bay before the Buccaneers hired Jon Gruden. Mularkey also interviewed for jobs in Cincinnati and Jacksonville last season.

Cowher's pronouncement means defensive coordinator Tim Lewis' job is safe. There had been speculation Lewis might fall victim to the Steelers' disappointing season even though his defense ranked ninth in the NFL.

Other than that, Cowher declined to reflect on what went wrong in 2003 or what he might need to do to get the Steelers back into playoff contention in '04. He said it was too soon for either.

"For me to make a statement like that 24 hours after our last game would be unfair to do," he said. "I can't do that. You have two months to deal with the cap."

Cowher did use the word "retool" for 2004 and not "overhaul," but he cautioned against reading too much into that.

"I don't think you are that far away from being a good football team," he said, "and I think some of the good football teams are not that far away from having maybe a tough year like we have experienced."

He also declined to speculate on where the Steelers stand under the salary cap, what they need in the draft or what areas of the team were pleasant surprises.

"I really refrain from singling anybody out just from the standpoint that I don't want to overlook somebody and offend somebody by not mentioning them."

At 6-10, there would seem to be few pleasant surprises to overlook. There certainly were many unpleasant surprises that dragged the Steelers down. One would be their No. 30 ranking on the ground, their lowest in history.

"You can't be ranked 30th in the NFL running the football and think everything is fine in doing that," Cowher said. "You have to be more consistent from that standpoint, and you have to have more balance. We were not a very balanced football team."

Jerome Bettis led the Steelers with 811 yards rushing after passing Jim Brown into sixth place on the NFL's all-time list with 12,353 yards. Cowher would not speculate on Bettis' future.

"Jerome is a quality back and a quality person. We are going to have to sit down and talk with him and see where it sits with the cap. Those are all decisions we have to make in the next couple of months. I have so much respect for him and the way he plays the game. This is one quality individual. I was happy for him to pass Jim Brown last night. You look at the yards he has amassed and what he has done in his career, it is pretty amazing."

Cowher will meet with his players individually today, as he has done after each of his previous 11 seasons. He will meet with his coaches tomorrow, then give them the rest of this week and next week off before they return to work.

The Steelers have until March 3, when free agency begins, before they must make any personnel decisions. Does going 6-10 make those decisions any easier?

"There is not a lot of good that comes out of 6-10," Cowher said.

It tied his worst record in 12 seasons with the Steelers, matching the 1999 team's record. The only worse record here since the 1970 NFL merger came in '88, when they went 5-11.

Cowher grew defensive when asked what makes him think the Steelers can turn it around quickly.

"You are making this sound like this has been a long-term drought that we have been in. We have been in the playoffs. We had the best record two years ago. We win the division last year and we are one game and overtime away from a championship, and this year we had a tough year. I don't know why, but it is happening.

"I think there is such a fine line with the system that is in place. It is hard to keep good teams together for extended periods of time because of the system that is in place. It is hard to have quality depth."

NOTES -- The Steelers will draft 11th, pending trades. ... S Chris Hope, who scored the Steelers' only touchdown Sunday night on an 81-yard pass on a fake punt from Josh Miller, had a magnetic resonance imaging exam on his shoulder yesterday. "It is nothing long-term," Cowher said, "but he hurt his shoulder and that is why he did not finish the game." ... RB Amos Zereoue has a sprained foot that is not considered serious. ... The Steelers failed to win two consecutive games in a season for the first time since 1969. ... Cowher firmly disputed any notion that WR Plaxico Burress might have underachieved because his 60 receptions for 860 yards did not measure up to his statistics in 2002: "No, not at all, not even close."