The Steelers issued Rashard Mendenhall the traditional No. 1 home jersey for their No. 1 draft pick, so the photographers could get a pose yesterday.

He will, in fact, wear No. 34, which might recall a certain halfback named Walter -- Abercrombie for Steelers diehards and Payton for everyone else.

Whatever jersey Mendenhall wears, it will be a good fit, according to the halfback who wears No. 39.

Willie Parker not only welcomed Mendenhall to the Steelers yesterday on the first day of minicamp, he treated him the way Jerome Bettis treated Parker four years ago.

"I've been in the league a little bit, so I definitely can teach him," said Parker, entering his fifth NFL season. "That's what I've been doing. I embraced him as soon as he came in, trying to teach him the ropes and stuff."

Bettis did that for Parker when he arrived as an undrafted rookie in 2004, fresh off the campus at North Carolina, where he did not even start.

Now comes a 20-year-old with just one season as a starter at Illinois, anxiously arriving as the first draft pick on one of the more fabled NFL franchises and wondering just how his new teammates might treat him -- especially the running backs whose jobs will be affected by his arrival.

"I was kind of nervous coming in," Mendenhall said. "But the running back room and Willie have been nothing but professional since I've been here, just trying to help me as much as they can.

"The better I do, the better they are going to do; we are going to be as a team."

Mendenhall said Parker already has shown him plenty.

"How to be a professional," the rookie explained. "He has been here for a few years. He is showing me how to work, what to do, how to carry yourself as a professional and as a man."

As the Steelers were about to draft Mendenhall, Kirby Wilson, their running backs coach, called Parker to tell him. He is, after all, a two-time Pro Bowl back, three times above 1,200 yards rushing, Super Bowl record-holder and former team MVP -- and they were taking their premier draft choice at the same position.

"We talked about it and stuff," Parker said. "They were just trying to make sure that I was all right with it, all right with everything. I'm a team player. He's here to push me, I'm here to make him better. We're going to compete and have fun doing it."

Parker already said before the draft he'd like to see his team acquire another running back to ease his load and extend his career. Yesterday, he mentioned that "my body took a toll last year."

"I'm all for it," Parker said. "He's going to come in here and make me better and I'll make him better. I'm going to take him under my wing like anybody else. He's a good running back ... and he's a big boy, he's really chiseled, we need that in our group."

Like Bettis and Parker in 2005, the two likely will share carries from here on out. How that happens has not yet been determined.

Parker was on his way to crashing his personal high for carries in a season (337) when his right fibula was broken on his 321st carry, his first rushing attempt in game 15. It ended his reign as the NFL rushing leader. Those 658 carries are the most by any Steelers running back not named Jerome Bettis in consecutive seasons.

In 2005, when Parker first became the starter and the last time the snaps were truly split between two backs, he had 255 carries and Bettis had 110. Bettis took most of the short-yardage carries.

That could present a picture of how their coaches might use Parker and Mendenhall next season. But Mendenhall also is much younger than was The Bus, and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has said he might team the two in a "Pony" backfield in certain situations. That's something both backs said they would enjoy.

"In a room like this you need weapons," Mendenhall said, "and if you have the weapons then it makes sense to use both of the running backs at the same time. I think that would be cool to be out there with Willie at the same time."