PHILADELPHIA – A busy signal could end up deciding the playoff fortunes of two AFC teams this season.

A year and a half ago, the Baltimore Ravens tried to trade up in the first round of the 2003 draft to get Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich.

The Ravens owned the 10th pick in the first round, but knew Leftwich wouldn’t fall to them. With the Vikings on the clock at No. 7, they attempted to negotiate a deal for Minnesota’s selection.

The Ravens, whose fallback plan was to stay at 10 and take Arizona State defensive end Terrell Suggs, were only willing to give up their fourth- and sixth-round picks to switch places with the Vikings. The Vikes balked.

With 30 seconds left on the clock, Minnesota finally relented and agreed to the swap. But the league still had to be notified. The Ravens tried to do that, but kept getting a busy signal when they dialed Manhattan. Before they could get through, time on the Vikes’ pick expired and the quick-thinking Jacksonville Jaguars, who owned the eighth pick, grabbed Leftwich with the seventh selection.

The Ravens ended up taking Suggs at No. 10, which has worked out pretty well. He had 12 sacks as a rookie and already has seven in six games this season.

But Baltimore still needed a quarterback. So they traded their second-round selection, which they wouldn’t part with to move up and get Leftwich, and their first-rounder in 2004 to New England, for the 19th pick in the first round and took Cal’s Kyle Boller.

Leftwich was the clear choice of most of the people in the Ravens’ organization, including general manager Ozzie Newsome and director of player personnel Phil Savage. The one man who preferred Boller was head coach Brian Billick, who was blown away by the kid’s arm strength and his ability to throw a ball 60 yards from a kneeling position. Unfortunately, you’re not asked to do that very often during a game.

Leftwich is doing a bang-up job for the Jags. He has a 90.1 passer rating and a 65.2 completion percentage and has been instrumental in his team’s surprising, 5-2 start.

Boller, meanwhile, has struggled in his first two seasons. He enters Sunday’s game against the 6-0 Eagles with a 61.8 passer rating and just two touchdowns in 128 attempts. The Ravens are 4-2, but Boller has had little to do with it. He’s thrown for fewer than 100 yards in three of the last five games. If Billick could hide the kid behind a potted plant, he would.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

• His passer rating has skyrocketed from 96.4 last year to 124.0 this year. His completion percentage has jumped eight points, from 65.0 to an unconscious 73.3. He’s averaging just one interception every 72 attempts and is on pace to break Dan Marino’s 20-year-old NFL record of 48 touchdown passes in a season. What has caused Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper to elevate his play so dramatically?

“Once you’re in a system a number of years, you feel very comfortable in what the coaches are asking you to do,” said Vikings coach Mike Tice. “Daunte’s worked with the same coordinator (Scott Linehan) now for three years. They understand each other. The coordinator understands what Daunte is comfortable with. Daunte is getting us out of a lot of bad situations, not only with his feet but also by calling audibles. I think the comfort level that he has with the system is a really big thing.”

• A growing number of teams are becoming frustrated with the league’s instant-replay system. Their major beef is that they’re at the mercy of the television networks to show a replay quickly enough for the head coach to be able to make a judgment on whether to challenge a call. There is no special feed of replays to the coaching box. If the network chooses to show fan shots or go to a commercial, which they seem to be doing with increasing frequency, rather than show a replay, the only option for the head coach is the in-stadium screen.

“When it was initially instituted, the conversation was that the coaches in the box would get more views than the average public,” Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt said. “But it hasn’t really worked out that way. Usually, my conversation with the coaches in the box is, “What did you see?’ And I hear back, “We’re still waiting (for a replay).’ “

• Mike Tice not only is the lowest-paid head coach in the NFL with an annual salary of $750,000, he’s not even the highest-paid football coach in Minneapolis. That honor goes to the University of Minnesota’s Glen Mason, who is earning $1 million-plus per year.

THIS AND THAT

• The one-year-old NFL Network already has distribution deals with 52 cable and satellite operators, giving them access to 22 million subscribers, an industry record for a year-old channel. NFL Network already is carried by 15 of the top 30 cable and satellite providers in the U.S., including the two biggest, Comcast and DirecTV.

• How small is the difference between victory and defeat in the NFL? Last year, the Jaguars lost six games by seven or fewer points, including four in the last minute, and finished 5-11. This year, they’ve won four games after trailing or being tied in the final minute and are 5-2.

• For the first time in the 20-year history of the award, an offensive lineman – Chiefs left guard Brian Waters – was selected the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Week. The Chiefs rushed for 271 yards and an NFL-record eight rushing touchdowns in their 56-10 win over Atlanta. Much of their ground success came behind Waters and left tackle Willie Roaf.

BY THE NUMBERS

• The Chiefs’ Priest Holmes and the Jets’ Curtis Martin are 1-2 in the NFL in rushing. Both are 31 years old. If one of them wins the league rushing title, they will become the oldest player ever to do so. The only other thirtysomething player to lead the league in rushing was then-30-year-old Marion Motley in 1950 with the Cleveland Browns.

• The Patriots have scored first in each of their last 14 games.

• Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison needs seven catches to reach 800 for his career. It will be his 130th career game. Of the five players who have caught 800 passes, Jerry Rice reached that plateau the quickest – in 154 games.

FROM THE LIP

• “Every coach I know, that I respect, pours it on. You coach football I think you live in dog years. You coach one year, that’s like living six, you know what I mean?” (Bucs coach Jon Gruden, on the long hours of a football coach)

• “It really doesn’t matter (who wins). Both guys are crooked. You know, I don’t think either one is going to make this a much better place. It’s going to take more than these two guys right here. Everybody tells me Bush is for the upper tax bracket. Yeah, I’m in the upper tax bracket. But the rest of my family isn’t.” (Dolphins tight end Randy McMichael, on the presidential election)

• “I want to keep doing this forever. There’s no heavy lifting here. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I went from a player to a coach to a broadcaster. I’ve been at recess my whole life. I never had to work.” (John Madden, of “Monday Night Football”)

• “I don’t take nothing from nobody’s style. I’m one of a kind, baby.” (Bills running back Willis McGahee, when asked if he ever tried to model his running style after fellow Floridian Emmitt Smith)

THUMBS DOWN

• To Bills quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who is blaming his team’s 1-5 record – and his abysmal 73.6 passer rating – on everybody but himself. “Take a look at what’s happening around me,” he said. “I’m the quarterback of a team that’s a power running team. Yet we have not run for a touchdown in six games. I’m in a situation where we’ve made a great emphasis to get back and get the ball off more quickly, yet I’ve still been hit as much as anybody in the league. I’ve got seven interceptions, but five of those were tipped balls one of them on a Hail Mary and one on a poor officiating call. I’m trying to do everything I can. But at this point, based on what I’ve been given . . . I feel like I’ve done what I can.”

• To Dolphins wide receiver David Boston, who last week was charged with simple assault at Burlington (Vt.) International Airport. He allegedly assaulted a 59-year-old gate agent, Ed Gorchinski. Boston was in Vermont rehabbing his injured knee. Late for a departing flight, he tried to sneak past Gorchinski, who tried to stop him. Boston has an early-December court appearance.