Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Steelers head coach Bill Cowher has a young team. Click photo for larger image. 2004 STEELERS CAMP PRIMER Five story lines to keep an eye on Around the AFC North Camp Roster: Offense Camp Roster: Defense The Coaching Staff Practice schedule: Dates and times Activity guide and general info for happy campers Getting there: Map & directions Collier: To renew or not to renew Cowher

As is customary for a football team that mined the depths of disappointment, the Steelers made personnel changes since their latest Super Bowl express collided with a 6-10 record.

Eight of coach Bill Cowher's 12 assistants either are fresh to the staff or have new titles or jobs, including both coordinators.

The playing roster is another matter. The club threw players overboard, mostly aging veterans, and signed few to replace them.

Thus, improvement in the 2004 Steelers, if there is to be any, must come from within.

"It's a young team, there's no question about it," Cowher said. "Even though you look at how many starters you have coming back, the dynamics of every team change year to year."

Cowher prays that's the case with the roster of 87 players he will greet at St. Vincent College when they report by 6 p.m. Friday to the Latrobe campus.

"Sometimes, it takes a training camp, even though there's not a lot of change, to find out what your strengths and weakness are," Cowher said. "That's what we're in the process of doing."

Other than halfback Duce Staley, the Steelers added no significant players other than rookies, none of whom should play a big role this season. That includes Ben Roethlisberger, the ninth player drafted and the only quarterback the Steelers chose in the first round in the past 24 years.

The Steelers instead are counting on improved health and young players moving into more significant roles to turn around a losing record that caught the two-time defending division champions by surprise last season. The losses prompted them to cut their ties with some notable veterans, hoping for addition by subtraction. The Steelers released linebacker Jason Gildon, their all-time sack leader and defensive co-captain, along with safety Brent Alexander, cornerback Dewayne Washington, halfback Amos Zereoue and tight end Mark Bruener, all starters or former starters. They also induced halfback Jerome Bettis to take a pay cut to $1 million annually.

Other than Staley, no newcomers are expected to compete for a starting job. The Steelers not only will rely on younger players to step in and do the job better -- players such as linebacker Clark Haggans, who will replace Gildon, and safety Chris Hope, who will replace Alexander -- but veterans who were injured (Marvel Smith), ill (Kendall Simmons) and shot (Joey Porter) to return to full health and previous form.

While Haggans recuperates from a broken hand, second-year player Alonzo Jackson likely will start at left outside linebacker.

"There are some young players we're counting on," Cowher said, "not just rookies but young veterans who are coming into roles where they need to step in and prove they're consistent football players."

They're counting on a lot. They're counting on the offensive line to play better because Smith and Simmons are healthy. They're counting on Oliver Ross to play better at right tackle than he did during the first half of last season, when he was given the job and couldn't hold it.

"I think it's going to be a thousand times better than last year," Simmons said. "Everybody's mentally tough after what we went through last year, and physically everybody had everything fixed that needed to be fixed, so I think we're on the right track right now."

They're counting on their running game to come alive, their defense to make bigger plays and get more aggressive, their passing game to become more efficient, their kicker to become more accurate, their luck to improve.

"We have the skill positions," Simmons said. "There's no doubt about that. As long as we're doing well up front, the offense is going to move like it should."

Other than Staley, the Steelers' offense will have virtually the same personnel as it did in the team's previous training camp. Not so on defense, which will have at least four new starters from last season -- Haggans, Hope, strong safety Troy Polamalu and cornerback Deshea Townsend, unless he loses the grip on the job he took from Washington midway through 2003 to a youngster such as Ike Taylor or rookie Ricardo Colclough.

The Steelers accomplished their goal by improving their pass defense from an NFL ranking of No. 20 in 2002 to No. 11 last season. But at what price? Their 35 sacks were the fewest on a Cowher team, and they produced only 25 turnovers, the lowest by a Steelers team over a 16-game schedule.

Cowher fired coordinator Tim Lewis and hired LeBeau, a coach on Cowher's first staff in 1992 who fathered the zone blitz defense and authored the attacking Blitzburgh defense that helped drive the Steelers to their last Super Bowl after the 1995 season. The handcuffs, as some players called them last season, will be taken off the defense. LeBeau will attack.

"We do need to turn the ball over more and we do need to have a higher sack total," LeBeau said. "They're weapons and contributors to wins. Do we have the wherewithal to do it? I think we do, from what I see."

Yet Porter is the only accomplished pass rusher on the field, and he had only five sacks last season after he missed the first two games because he was wounded in the backside and thigh by a stray bullet. Defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, in a surprise, led the team with eight sacks. Haggans might improve the defense on the left side. Although Gildon was the Steelers' all-time sack leader, he was not effective last season.

"We're fast, we're quick, we have a lot of young guys out there," Haggans said. "We're still working out the kinks. From Coach LeBeau's perspective, he says we're on the right path but we have a long way to go to get where we want to get. We have a lot of guys who can rush the passer."

LeBeau believes part of the defense's drop-off last season in sacks and turnovers came because they did not hold many leads in the second half. Opposing offenses chose to run the ball, relieved of the need to pass to quickly catch up. Steelers foes passed the ball only 484 times last season, down from 573 in 2002. The only times since 1993 that opponents threw fewer than 500 times came during Cowher's three losing seasons.

Conversely, Tommy Maddox became the first Steelers quarterback to throw more than 500 times in one season when he attempted 519 passes in 2003. He was not as effective as he was in 2002. Cowher believes improved play from the line and a better running game, which finished an all-time Steelers low with a No. 31 ranking, will help his quarterback.

Maddox will have a new position coach, Mark Whipple, and a new coordinator, Ken Whisenhunt, promoted from his job coaching the tight ends after Mike Mularkey became head coach in Buffalo. Whisenhunt will stick with Mularkey's basic offense but has installed some old Washington Redskins philosophies -- the tight end as H-back and receivers running similar routes from different alignments. "What we've done is move guys around in different spots, put them in different positions and run the same, base system play, but done it with different guys," Whisenhunt said.

Other than Staley, who will play on third downs and compete with Bettis for time on early downs, those different guys are the same as last season on offense. Cowher merely expects different results.

"It's a long year," Cowher said. "If you can stay healthy and have some key guys come through with big years, there's no question we're capable of turning it around."