Eagles expect dividend for sticking with Detmer.

Byline: Bernard Fernandez

PHILADELPHIA _ Backup quarterbacks are like disaster-insurance policies: You know you need them, but hope never to use them.

The Eagles have paid the premiums on Koy Detmer for six seasons, during which time he has been called upon only occasionally to repair a leaky pipe here, a broken window there. But now that a tornado has passed through and fractured starter Donovan McNabb's right fibula, Detmer's teammates insist they are in good hands with the undersized, unshaven guy whose primary function since McNabb arrived in 1999 has been as the holder for kicker David Akers.

"He's a different man," cornerback Troy Vincent said of Detmer, who gets the seventh _ and, by far, most important _ start of his career in …