PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh Steelers coordinators Ken Whisenhunt and Dick LeBeau set high standards in their first seasons on the job.

As spring practice sessions draw to a close this week, both believe their units can exceed those standards.

LeBeau put together the league's No. 1 defense in 2004, but he hasn't stood pat. He and head coach Bill Cowher have tinkered with some of the blitzes and personnel packages, and LeBeau likes what he sees.

"We've got some new looks," he said. "I think if teams are just taking our video from last year and getting ready for that, they're going to see some things they haven't seen."

Last season, the Steelers were first against the run, third against the pass and first in fewest points allowed. Sacks increased from 35 to 41 under LeBeau and turnovers increased from 26 to 32.

This year, "our defense is much further ahead right now than where they were at this time last year, and we put in quite a bit more material," LeBeau said.

The Steelers haven't made any personnel changes on defense. They lost inside linebacker Kendrell Bell in free agency and released cornerback Chad Scott, but both players were injured most of last season and lost their jobs. While Larry Foote has secured Bell's former position, Willie Williams will be challenged at left cornerback in training camp by Ike Taylor, Ricardo Colclough and second-round draft pick Bryant McFadden.

"I'm cautiously optimistic about our young players - our draft choices and free agents," LeBeau said. "I think as a group they're as good as any group I've seen starting out."

In his first season as offensive coordinator, Whisenhunt oversaw what may have been the best performance ever by a rookie quarterback. Even so, Whisenhunt said Ben Roethlisberger made strides this spring."From the standpoint of how much he studied and worked in the offseason, you can see a lot of it starting to click out here for him," Whisenhunt said. "Certainly he knows a lot more of the offense. Certainly he's a lot more comfortable with it. You see a lot of that from the way he interacts with the players and also how quick he is on his reads and some of his throws."With Whisenhunt calling the plays in 2004, the Steelers were first in the AFC in rushing, but 20th in the league in passing. He doesn't expect the run-pass ratio to change much, in spite of his quarterback's progress."You're not going to get away from what you did that won 15 games," Whisenhunt said. "We're still going to run the ball, but I certainly think that we can expand on what we did just because everybody's more comfortable with everybody."