Eagles Hope QB Peete Can Turn Around Season

The Philadelphia Eagles, off to a slow 2-4 start, decided this week to switch quarterbacks. The Arizona Cardinals, off to an even slower 1-5 start, decided to switch placekickers.

Actually, the Cardinals are go ing to switch quarterbacks, too, but not for the same reason the Eagles are.

Cards starter Kent Graham sprained an ankle and injured a knee so badly in his team’s 27-13 loss to the New York Giants last week that he’ll not only miss Sunday’s game, but might also not be around when the teams meet again in Tempe in two weeks. So Stoney Case will get his first start.

Eagles Coach Ray Rhodes and Cardinals Coach Vince Tobin would both probably like to make wholesale lineup changes to get their seasons turned around, but the fact is, in these days of salary caps and free agency, neither team has the kind of depth that permits those kind of changes.

“They switch quarterbacks and it gets you to thinking,” Eagles offensive tackle Barrett Brooks said. But although he was one of many Eagles who in Rhodes’ words “got manhandled” last Sunday in Jacksonville, Rhodes simply doesn’t have anyone better than Brooks available to play right tackle and that’s the case at almost every other position.

So Rhodes made a change at the one position where his No. 2 man, Rodney Peete, has almost exactly the same ability to play QB as the former No. 1, Ty Detmer. Detmer’s problem isn’t that he hasn’t moved the Eagles -- they are statistically the No. 1 offense in the NFL from a yardage standpoint -- but that yardage hasn’t translat ed into points or, even more impor tantly, into wins.

“He’s not a sacrificial lamb,” Rhodes said of Detmer, but with nowhere else to turn, Rhodes made the one switch at the one position where there might not be a dropoff in talent.

Even Detmer admitted he wouldn’t have been surprised if Rhodes had made this move two weeks ago when the Eagles were 1-3 and were in equally bad shape as far as the playoff hunt goes.

And Detmer said he’ll prepare to play as if he’s a starter should he be needed. He took over at quarterback last season when Peete injured a knee and was lost for the year.

“We’ve got to put a string of wins together and it starts this week,” said Detmer, who like Peete, has never created a problem for Rhodes despite the competitive nature of their position.

Peete said one reason he can handle it is that he’s been there before. He was part of what amounted to a three-man quarterback rotation when he began his career with the Detroit Lions. Then, in his first year with the Eagles in 1995, he stepped in for the struggling Randall Cunningham in the fifth game of the season, led the Eagles to a 10-6 record and a wild card playoff berth and a victory over the Lions in the first playoff game.

But in a subsequent playoff game in Dallas against the Cowboys, Peete suffered a concussion when he was tackled while scram bling and had to be replaced by Cunningham.

Peete said nothing will change with him playing quarter back, at least on the field. “I’ll be a lot more vocal in the locker room,” he promised. “If you’re not the starting quarterback, it’s harder to be a leader.”

Although the Eagles’ QB switch had more to do with a change in attitude than ability, the Cardinals’ switch of kickers was a direct result of Kevin Butler missing two potential game-winning field goals and an extra point last week.

Former Miami Dolphins place kicker Joe Nedney was given the job this week, but he hasn’t exactly distinguished himself with his reliability, either. He has a reputation for great range, poor direction.

In college at San Jose State, he missed 13 of 132 extra points and was only 39 of 70 on field goals, but one went for 60 yards.

Last year with Miami, he had a league-low percentage of 18-for-29 on field goals, but led his confer ence with kickoffs into the end zone with 20.