FanHouse CorneliusGriffin

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: The young Jason Campbell made some nice strides last year ... but had a huge problem holding onto the ball too long. His fumbles, unnecessary sacks and bad decisions led to some poor end-of-game situations. Now with Jim Zorn calling the shots, Campbell will be in his 7th different system in eight years (counting his time at Auburn). Now he will be learning the West Coast offense that takes QBs a while to learn. Backup Todd Collins was golden in his duties last year and it was a bit of a surprise that he re-upped in Washington again. Colt Brennan is a project as the No. 3. Heat Index: 5

Running Back: Heading into last year, many people figured that the Redskins would go to a dual-back system. Didn't happen. Clinton Portis (who is always nicked up) brought it all season long, taking his place near the top of the yardage and TD rankings. Ladell Betts wasn't bad or anything -- he just didn't get the opportunities to shine as he did in 2006. Still, Betts is a very serviceable backup who could get more touches if Zorn really does want to run the football. Heat Index: 8

Whenever something what happened to Sean Taylor occurs, everyone around that person starts to reassess things. In this case, safety is a concern.

"I've always been scared about guns, but I'm strongly thinking about getting one," offensive tackle Chris Samuels said. "Everybody talks about a small percentage of people having to protect themselves in their own home, but what if you are in that small percentage? What do you do? If I do get a gun, I'll go through the proper training and all of that. Some guys get 'em and think they know what to do by watching crime shows on TV."

"After what happened to Sean, I'm thinking about getting a gun," TE Chris Cooley said. "Everybody knows when we're away from home."

The linked article mentions Rock Cartwright and Cornelius Griffin as previous gun owners who bought them for security purposes.

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).

Looks like we may be getting a really good look at Jason Campbell these last two preseason games. Mark Brunell says he was injured Tuesday, practiced some on Wednesday then missed most of Thursday's practice with a sore groin. Yet another injury before the season starts. This is in addition to his bruised calf earlier in training camp and a broken finger on his throwing hand during the offseason.

The depth at key positions has unexpectedly started mounting up as we get closer to the regular season. With Clinton Portis, Shawn Springs, Phillip Daniels and Cornelius Griffin going down (not to mention Kerry Carter and Chris Clemons who were both lost for the year), the Redskins have suffered a dent on the first team squads. The trade for TJ Duckett has eyebrows raised over Portis' shoulder. The trade for Mike Rumph should do the same for Shawn Springs' injury. So far no defensive linemen have been traded for, but we still have two more weeks left in the preseason.

As the questions stack up at depth, maybe Jason Campbell will come around and make Brunell's seemingly consistent injuries a moot point. Perhaps if Campbell performs well enough, he will either hold it down until Brunell gets back to 100% or even inherent the starting position.

Everyone knows that to compete for an NFL playoff spot, you have to be able to run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense. Well, the Washington Redskins have suffered injuries in both preseason games that greatly affects this formula. In the first quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals, RB Clinton Portis went down with a shoulder injury. In the first quarter against the New York Jets, DT Cornelius Griffin went down with a knee injury.

With Clinton Portis uncertain for the season opener, the Redskins could begin the year aiming to at least do enough. And that's in addition to losing RB Kerry Carter for the season, RB Ladell Betts recuperating from nagging injuries and RB Jesse Lumsden nursing a groin injury. RB Rock Cartwright is the size of a smurf and isn't built to handle a full load, and FB Mike Sellers, well, he's a FB (though he looked good carrying the load for three carries against the Jets).

Stopping the run will already be harder without Griffin, but then you have to consider DE Phillip Daniels' back injury, CB Shawn Springs' abdomen injury, the loss of LB Chris Clemons for the season, CB Ade Jimoh's chest injury and CB Kenny Wright playing like CB Walt Harris did last year.

With a couple of weeks to go before the season's first Monday Night game between the Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings, perhaps some of the wounded warriors will be ready to go. The injuries for the most part are minor, but none of the injured have played a full 60-minute head-knocking game in months. If we're going to make a run for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, either trainer Bubba Tyer is going to have to find a miracle cure or someone is going to have to step up and offensively make sure we're still churning yards out on the ground game and defensively making sure no runningback carries the rock past the line of hemorrhage without getting their heads busted.