BALTIMORE -- It was hardly a Wally Pipp-Lou Gehrig scenario, but when the Baltimore Ravens cast off the NFL's career-leading pass catcher among tight ends as part of a salary-cap purge recently, the club was confident it had a worthy replacement for the departing Shannon Sharpe.

Then again, the certainty of vice president Ozzie Newsome and coach Brian Billick pales in comparison to that of second-year tight end Todd Heap, whose surname pretty much defines the amount of talent possessed by the 2001 first-round draft choice.

At least at one offensive position, the decimated Ravens aren't necessarily in a Heap of trouble.

	Stepping Up
	Here is a lineup of second- and third-year veterans being counted on to start this year. The lineup is comprised only of players who have never started more than eight games in a season or 10 total in their careers:
	Offense
	Pos/Player	Team	Yrs.	Starts
	WR/Chris Chambers	Mia.	2	7
	LT/Bernard Robinson	Chi.	2	0
	LG/Casey Rabach	Bal.	2	0
	C/Dominic Raiola	Det.	2	0
	RG/Oliver Ross	Pit.	3	7
	RT/Kenyatta Jones	N.E.	2	0
	TE/Todd Heap	Bal.	2	7
	WR/Santana Moss	NYJ	2	0
	QB/Michael Vick	Atl.	2	2
	FB/Bryan Johnson	Was.	2	1
	RB/Deuce McAllister	N.O.	2	3
	Defense
	Pos/Player	Team	Yrs.	Starts
	DE/Derrick Burgess	Phi.	2	4
	DT/Marcus Stroud	Jac.	2	0
	DT/Darwin Walker	Phi.	3	0
	DE/K. Vanden Bosch	Ari.	2	3
	LB/Sedrick Hodge	N.O.	2	0
	LB/Isaiah Kacyvenski	Sea.	2	0
	LB/Ian Gold	Den.	3	0
	CB/Reggie Howard	Car.	3	0
	SS/Mike Green	Chi.	3	2
	FS/Cory Bird	Ind.	2	0
	CB/Gary Baxter	Bal.	2	0

"Having a guy like (Sharpe) here last season was the best situation I could have had," said Heap, a former Arizona State standout whose hands are as sure as those of most NFL wide receivers. "He was a great teacher. All you had to do was watch him and you learned something every day. I was sorry to see him go. But his (exit) means that it's my turn now."

All over the league, there are young but relatively untested veterans echoing similar sentiments, although perhaps not with as much self-confidence. In virtually every NFL precinct, there are second- and third-year players who spent training camps preparing to move to the top of the depth chart because of the usual offseason attrition.

No team, however, will nudge as many young players into the lineup as the Ravens. They were forced to jettison 13 starters because of past salary-cap excesses. Just two years removed from a Super Bowl title, Baltimore will start at least 10 players in only their second or third NFL seasons. Some of the names, like that of tailback Jamal Lewis or wide receiver Travis Taylor, are familiar. Others are unknown even to some hard-core football fans.

"This is where we're at," said Newsome, one of the game's best personnel chiefs. "Every team starts some young guys. We just have more of them than most everybody else."

Baltimore could have as many as six second- or third-year veterans -- including quarterback Chris Redman, left guard Casey Rabach, inside linebacker Ed Hartwell and cornerback Gary Baxter -- starting their first games in next Sunday's season opener at Carolina.

The final player selected in the first round of the 2001 draft, Heap started six games as a rookie, when the Ravens opened in two-tight end sets, and caught 16 passes for 206 yards and a touchdown. His apprenticeship was a brief one, and he now finds himself a centerpiece of sorts on an offense where the most senior skill-position player is fourth-year wide receiver Brandon Stokley. Certainly the learning curve has been accelerated for Heap and many of his teammates.

But at least Heap, 22, has been through a war that featured live bullets. "Some guys," he said, "are just going to have to grow up in a hurry. There's a little on-the-job training involved here, you know?"

And not just in Baltimore.

In Chicago, for instance, quarterback Jim Miller's blind side is going to be protected by second-year left tackle Bernard Robertson, who was inactive for all 16 games his rookie campaign. The new go-to guy in the New Orleans offense, tailback Deuce McAllister, logged just 16 carries in his 2001 rookie season. Ian Gold, who inherits the weakside linebacker spot that Bill Romanowski once owned in Denver, has never started a regular-season NFL game.

The cornerstone of the Jacksonville Jaguars' defense against the run is 2001 first-rounder Marcus Stroud, but he has zero starts on his NFL resume. Even the much heralded Michael Vick started but two games at quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons as a rookie. Kenyatta Jones, taken out of tiny South Florida in the '01 draft, figures to start at offensive right tackle for the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots despite just five appearances as a rookie.

	“	When they call your number, you've got to jump to the front of the line and be ready to go. ”
		— Deuce McAllister, Saints running back

If it seems like a lot of young veterans -- defined for our purposes as players entering their second or third seasons and with fewer than eight starts in any season and less than 10 in their career -- are being pushed center stage this season, the perception is correct. But the collection isn't significantly more than in most recent seasons. Free agency, the occasional trade, retirements and salary cap-related roster-paring clearly has increased the rate of attrition in the NFL the past 10 years. Those factors, combined with economic reality, have created opportunities for young players to step into the lineup.

In Chicago, for instance, the Bears sacrificed excellent strong safety Tony Parrish in unrestricted free agency (he signed with San Francisco) because they had other players whose retention was a higher priority. The decision to allow Parrish to depart, after four seasons as a starter, was somewhat assuaged by the belief that third-year veteran Mike Green was ready to fill the strong safety position after performing well as a backup.

"These are the kinds of tradeoffs you have to make because of the cap," said general manager Jerry Angelo. "But it helped to know we had Mike Green, who is going to be a very good player."

While not as big as Parrish, who was a physical specimen at 214 pounds, Green might have better range. He appeared in all 32 games during the first two seasons of his career and, despite just two starts, logged considerable time in the "nickel" package. In fact, his 68 tackles in a third-down role last year were only a dozen fewer than Parrish, who rarely missed a snap. Free safety Mike Brown, who gained instant celebrity in 2001 with consecutive overtime interception returns for touchdowns, calls Green a "great" safety.

"I don't know about that," said Green, a seventh-round choice in the 2000 draft. "I do know, though, there's a great deal of pressure. I'm the new guy on the block on an excellent unit. There are a lot of eyes on me. All I can do is lean on the experiences I've had to this point, and try to build on that."

There are, to be sure, young veterans who made the most of their playing time in past cameo performances.

Among the 16 rushes McAllister had in 2001, one was a touchdown romp of 54 yards. Second-year veteran Derrick Burgess, expected to start at left end on the experienced Philadelphia Eagles defense this year, had six sacks in limited playing time last season. Offensive lineman Oliver Ross played well in seven starts at guard and tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. Gold was a Broncos special teams standout.

All will be counted on to author even greater contributions in 2002. All of them appear ready to accept the challenge.

"The thing is, in this league, you can't have it both ways," said McAllister, who takes over the spot Ricky Williams held for three seasons in The Big Easy. "You can't say, on one hand, 'Yeah, I want that starting job.' And then turn around and say, 'But, you know, I really haven't had that much (playing time).' There are no excuses.

"When they call your number, you've got to jump to the front of the line and be ready to go."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.