SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) – Nothing has changed in Carolina’s quarterback rotation after one preseason game. Rodney Peete is still the starter and three others are still trying to unseat him.

If there’s one thing that did become clear in Carolina’s 20-0 win over Washington, it’s that Peete had better not slip up because Jake Delhomme and Chris Weinke are ready to pounce.

“I think we all played well, we all went to the right spots and there were no turnovers from that position,” Peete said Monday.

So well that there was little criticism of the group based strictly on Saturday night’s game against the Redskins. Were any of them spectacular? No.

But all played relatively mistake-free and were able to move Carolina’s offense while combining to go 16-of-30 for 169 yards. Peete led the Panthers to two field goals and went 5-for-11 for 57 yards. Delhomme went 3-for-5 for 43 yards, ran 12 yards on a scramble and was sacked once. Weinke led the Panthers on both TD drives – runs by Rod Smart and Skip Hicks – and went 8-for-11 for 69 yards.

Jaguars

Fred Taylor can’t even jog, let alone practice these days. Still, the running back insists his left knee is not seriously injured.

“I’m fine,” he said Monday, after missing practice for the ninth straight day. “I’ve been fine. If it were Sept. 7, I’d play.”

Taylor is out with what the team is calling a bone bruise. Coach Jack Del Rio said team doctors are being extremely cautious with the sixth-year veteran, who stayed healthy all of last season for the first time and ran for 1,314 yards.

“He’s our workhorse,” Del Rio said. “We want to make sure he can play when the season rolls around.”

Nobody wants that more than Taylor, who has bristled at the nickname – “Fragile Fred” – he got stuck with early in his career when he missed games. Even with the complete season last year, Taylor has missed 24 of 80 regular-season games over his first five seasons.

Del Rio was less than impressed with DE Hugh Douglas, the team’s biggest free-agent signing of the offseason. The coach termed Douglas’ brief performance against the Vikings as “very average.”

Lions

John Jett sure made an impression on new coach Steve Mariucci.

In Detroit’s 26-13 preseason win over Pittsburgh on Saturday, Jett dropped three first-half punts inside the Steelers’ 10-yard line, including one that was downed on the 2 and led to a safety.

“John Jett is definitely a weapon,” Mariucci said. “He can really make a difference by pinning the opponents deep.

“We didn’t take full advantage of the field position we gained on those punts, which is disappointing. But having the ability to make the other team start in that kind of field position is very valuable.”

Jett finished the game with five punts inside the 20 in eight tries, and only 12 yards of return yardage.

“That was a pretty good way to start the season,” said Jett, who won two Super Bowls in Dallas before joining the Lions in 1997. “The problem is that I don’t want to use up all my best punts in the preseason – I have to save a few for when they count.”

Seahawks

Star linebacker Chad Brown is back on the field for the first time since breaking his right foot in the middle of last season.

But he took it slow Monday at training camp and didn’t participate in contact drills.

“You know, they’re baby steps,” the three-time Pro Bowler said. “But it felt good to get out there and run around, and change directions and do a little stuff.”

The Seahawks are counting on Brown to be ready for the regular-season opener Sept. 7. Coach Mike Holmgren is hopeful Brown will be able to play in the team’s third exhibition game Aug. 23 against Kansas City.

When he’s ready, he will go back into the starting lineup at strongside linebacker. In half a season, he had six sacks and 50 tackles last year.

“What we’ve been watching and what we’ll continue to watch is strength,” Holmgren said. “His injury leg is not as strong as the other one. So you have to let him build that up gradually so they’re pretty even.”

Bills

Ainsley Battles left the Buffalo Bills’ training camp Monday, less than two weeks after signing as a free agent.

During the safety’s three NFL seasons, two with Pittsburgh and one with Jacksonville, he played in 45 games, starting 17, and intercepted three passes.

“He left camp, his decision. Anything else, you’d have to ask him,” Bills coach Gregg Williams said.

Browns

Cleveland Browns coach Butch Davis brought the Stanley Cup to training camp Monday in hopes it would inspire his team to win a different trophy.

Mike Rupp, who scored the winning goal for the New Jersey Devils in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, arrived with the cup at the Browns’ facility after the afternoon practice.

The right wing spoke to the Browns at Davis’ request.

Rupp, a rookie, was recalled from the minors during the playoffs. He didn’t play until Game 4 of the finals, but finished with four points, including a goal and two assists in Game 7. Davis held the Cup on the practice field and told Rupp that he’s an example to the Browns that any player can help a team win.

“You never know who’s going to be the key guy,” Davis said.

The Cup was at a shopping mall earlier in the day as it made its way through northeast Ohio.

Titans

Two rookie safeties are out with injuries, the starting free safety is working his way through Bell’s palsy and the top rookie cornerback must see a specialist for a dislocated toe.

At this rate, the Tennessee Titans can only hope they have run through all the injuries to their secondary before the regular season begins.

“Better now than during the season, man,” free safety Lance Schulters said Monday. “This is the preseason. Hopefully, hopefully the injuries will happen now and in the season, we’ll be healthy.”

Rookie safety Jesse Sowells is out with an injured knee, and safety Thomas Wright dislocated his right shoulder last week. Then doctors told Schulters on Saturday that he has Bell’s palsy, a virus that affects the facial nerves. That night against the Cleveland Browns, top draft pick Andre Woolfolk dislocated his left toe. Doctors tested Schulters with a CT scan and an MRI on Monday, hoping to see how the virus is affecting the nerves in his face.

The virus can take up to three weeks for symptoms to peak, but doctors hope using steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs can limit any paralysis.

Schulters said he can’t feel the muscles on the left side of his face, which makes driving particularly difficult because his eyelid isn’t closing completely. The side of his mouth also is sagging, and he said the numbness has not eased.

Schulters, a Hofstra graduate who went to the Pro Bowl in 1999, said the challenge will be protecting his eye.

“If I go out this week and practice there this week and have a problem with my eye, I don’t want to be blind. Football ain’t worth it to me,” Schulters said.

“It’s how my eye can handle it, if the visor can keep me protected and keep me from getting stuck in it or … damaging my cornea. That’s the biggest concern. Then I’ll play.”

Woolfolk wore a walking boot on his left foot Monday, and he said he will see a specialist in Charlotte on Wednesday to determine whether surgery is needed.

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Redskins

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Washington Redskins took out a dreadful exhibition performance on themselves Monday in an intense practice punctuated by the biggest fight so far in training camp, a vicious hit by Jeremiah Trotter and a call from linebacker Jessie Armstead to “put up or shut up.”

“It all boils down to toughness,” Armstead said. “We’ve got to be a tougher team. It’s time to put up or shut up.”

Coach Steve Spurrier, embarrassed by Saturday’s 20-0 loss at Carolina, opened practice with a lengthy message to his team in a huddle at midfield. He wanted a tougher practice, and he sure got it.

Running back Chad Morton got fed up by an extra shove from Armstead and attacked the linebacker, leading to a huge scrum that included linebacker LaVar Arrington flailing at receiver Rod Gardner.

On the next play, Trotter drove running back Sultan McCullough into the ground with a bone-crunching tackle. Defensive coordinator George Edwards erupted at Trotter, who was ordered off the field for the rest of the series.

Spurrier felt the fights and rough plays were too much of a remedy for the poor performance.

“That was something that shouldn’t have happened, but hopefully will not happen again,” Spurrier said. “We don’t encourage that at all.”

AP-ES-08-11-03 2004EDT