New coach Mike Tomlin should see two vital components of the Steelers' Super Bowl team on the practice field when his second minicamp starts today.

Guard Alan Faneca and safety Troy Polamalu, who did not attend minicamp three weeks ago, have told club officials they will join their teammates for three days of required practices this weekend.

Between them, Faneca and Polamalu have made nine Pro Bowls. They also enter the final year of their contracts and no progress has been reported in contract talks with either player.

While the players were not required to attend the first minicamp April 20-22, all but Faneca, Polamalu and linebacker Clark Haggans participated. Haggans and Polamalu provided Tomlin with excuses; Faneca did not. Haggans was at a team meeting last night and also will be at this camp.

Faneca, a six-time Pro Bowl guard, however, promised to turn out as the new draft class and free agent rookies join the veterans on the field for the first time.

Faneca, a nine-year starter, expressed disappointment shortly after the Steelers hired Tomlin in February and that they did not instead hire Russ Grimm or Ken Whisenhunt, two former members of Bill Cowher's staff, to become the next head coach.

"When Cowher retired, everybody in the league wanted two of our guys, so you'd think we would want at least one of them," Faneca said from the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

However, it is not so much who is coach but lagging contract talks that Faneca and his agent, Rick Smith, seem most unhappy about. Faneca was paid a $1 million roster bonus in March and is due a $3,375,000 salary at a time when free-agent guards who have never been to a Pro Bowl have signed contracts guaranteeing $17 million.

"It's between Alan and the front-office people," receiver Hines Ward said after talking to Faneca before the first minicamp. "We as players support Alan and whatever decision he makes."

Said fellow starting guard Kendall Simmons during the first minicamp, "The whole thing that is going on is all business and is part of it, and every guy is going to go through it eventually."

Tomlin talked with Faneca when the player turned up at the team's South Side training center the day before the first minicamp.

"I know I have no personal issues with him," Tomlin said at the time.