PHILADELPHIA -- After Kevin Kolb suffered a concussion during last month's season opener, Eagles coach Andy Reid said the quarterback would regain the starting job as soon as he was healthy.
Instead, Reid decided to stick with Michael Vick, who played well in Kolb's absence.
Now that Vick is hurt, will Kolb have a chance to turn the tables and win back the job? Kolb shrugged off the possibility Wednesday.
"If I get into all that, then I'm focusing on the wrong thing," Kolb said. "My focus right now is to go out and beat San Francisco and make sure I do my part in doing that."
Vick, who led the 2-2 Eagles to wins at Detroit and Jacksonville, is expected to miss one or two games with cartilage damage in his ribs, suffered last weekend during a home loss to the Washington Redskins. So Kolb will make his fourth NFL start Sunday when the Eagles face the winless 49ers in a nationally televised primetime game at Candlestick Park.
Kolb said he's not trying to prove he's capable of being a starter. He only has one goal.
"Win," he said. "That's all I care about, and that's the truth. Just go out there and win. That's our No. 1 focus right now."
Reid ducked a question about Kolb's ability to win back the job.
"Right now, I'm focused in on San Francisco and getting Kevin ready to play, and Kevin's getting ready to play, and we'll go from there," Reid said. "I think Kevin's looking forward to the opportunity, the challenge."
But there certainly is much at stake for Kolb. At some point, the Eagles need to decide whether to offer Vick a multiyear contract and commit to him as the team's long-term answer at quarterback or to proceed with Kolb as the quarterback of the future. The more Kolb plays, the easier that decision will be.
"As a football player, you just try to focus on the task at hand and the rest takes care of itself," Kolb said. "I'm not nervous about it, I'm excited about it. I'm having more fun right now than I've had in this game ever, and so I'm looking forward to getting back out there."
"We obviously moved the ball great, we've just got to plug it in when we get down there," Kolb said. "There were plenty of opportunities. We just need to finish them off.
"This is the most playing time I've seen since last year. That was the one thing that was very encouraging. I felt very good out there. Felt good moving around, so just continue on that and build."
Kolb said he wasn't bitter at losing the starting job after just two quarters of football, especially after his coach initially promised he would keep it. That's just life in the NFL, Kolb said.
"I'm a positive person, so I always see the good in things," he said. "So, that was never an issue. It was a difficult time, but there's (always) a chance that this could happen, and you have to be ready to go all the time."
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
