FanHouse Andre Carter

Whomever the Republicans want to run against Barack Obama in 2012 needs to call the Redskins' marketing department for some help. They can really get the voters to the polls.

If only we all could vote for out presidents online.

Because of an aggressive campaign, the Redskins have managed to get 21 of their players as the top positional vote-getters in Pro Bowl voting. The Redskins have leaders in 16 of the 19 positions.

Right now, eight of the 11 starters on offense and nine of the 11 starters on defense would be Redskins. All four special teams positions are led by Redskins -- including punter Ryan Plackemeier, who joined the team midseason. Shawn Springs is the leading vote-getter at cornerback even though he hasn't played but half the season.

Fullback Mike Sellers has nearly 33% of the total votes for his position and could be a shoo-in to win. Rookie safety Chris Horton has a 206% lead over second place. The fan voting accounts for one-third of the overall tally and it isn't known if the coaches vote or players vote would be enough to knock all of them out.

Clinton Portis trails only Drew Brees in overall voting and should be in the Pro Bowl. You can argue that Sellers, Chris Cooley and Santana Moss should also be there. Guys like Andre Carter (who is second to Justin Tuck in voting for defensive ends) don't.

Now that the glass half full looks more like it's half empty, let's take a more realistic snapshot of what the Redskins are working with. It's easy to let the 0-2 record get us down, but last year's team, which was less talented (on paper at least) was 5-6 before making a run for the playoffs.

So what's going on this year? Are we really that bad? Is there any hope left for a run for the Lombardi Trophy?

All week I've been hearing and reading stuff about the upcoming Redskins-Cowboys game about how the Redskins secondary looked so bad against Minnesota that they should make Bledsoe look good again. The theory is that second-year CB Carlos Rogers won't be able to maintain T.O., let alone Kenny Wright or Mike Rumph.

Looking back at the Vikings game, Gregg Williams did not employ a lot of blitz packages. Brad Johnson was pretty much given a break because of the injuries suffered on our defensive side of the ball. With Pierson Prioleau going down early in the game and Shawn Springs still nursing his injury, that left zero depth in the secondary. If you blitz Rogers and Taylor, you have recently acquired Mike Rumph covering one-on-one with only Adam Archuleta covering the top. Not a good idea. The backup safeties are Vernon Fox and Reed Doughty, neither of whom has proven anything yet.

With Gregg Williams holding back on bringing the heat we're used to seeing, that left the pressure up to an injured Cornelius Griffin, Phillip Daniels and Renaldo Wynn. And where in the world is Andre Carter? Going against Steve Hutchinson, Matt Birk and Bryant McKinnie, you HAVE to bring some heat.

Here's hoping to a plan C . Backup DE Renaldo Wynn was injured in the New England Patriots game, saying he was horse-collared, making his status for Thursday's preseason finale against the Baltimore Ravens in doubt. Add that to the injuries to Cornelius Griffin and Phillip Daniels and the defensive line is averaging one lost player per game.

That leaves at DE first year Redskin Andre Carter, solid backups Demetric Evans and Nic Clemon, and your pick between Karon Riley and Joe Sykes until Phillip Daniels returns. At DT, until Cornelius Griffin is back, there's starter Joe Salave'a, solid backup Cedric Killings, still-learning backup Ryan Boschetti and the four rookies, Anthony Montgomery, Kedric Golston, Chris Mineo and Vaka Manupuna.

Wynn sprained his right ankle in the preseason game and says it's a day at a time. The Redskins are first waiting for the inflammation to go down and treat the ankle as much as possible to prepare Wynn for the regular season. Luckily, there wasn't any diagnosis of weeks of missing action, so he may be returning around the same time as Phillips, Griffin and Springs (a little later).