re: Trevor Penning

Willie could help him with that!

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His kick set was bad. His feet were bad. He would lunge. A coach could tell you exactly what to do but the player eventually has to execute.

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I agree with your critique, except for the lunge piece. I didn't notice him lunge much, but definitely leaned too forward and was easily knocked off balance.
I have no idea if he is a guy that can switch sides of the ball and perform better or worse. I'd lean to think he's better on left side since that's where he's played for so long, and others have switched with no problems, yet somebody like Peat was a lost puppy on the right side.
His biggest attribute coming out of college was his hand fighting and mean streak to be a great run blocker. The biggest disappointment to me last season was that we saw some of that in preseason, then ZERO during the regular season! WTH changed from preseason to week 1? Genuine question, was it stage fright=possibly? Was it better talent=I say not really? Was it defensive game plans=Maybe some plays but definitely not all considering he got beat plenty times in straight 1v1. Was it our offensive game plan maybe giving him too much to think about?=Sort of my guess leading to paralysis by analysis, combined with some of his just poor execution. Part of the silver lining that makes me think their is still hope for him is that nobody on the line performed particularly well last season. McCoy was best, with Peat legitimately being our 2nd best, the same Peat that I and many others have hoped would be beat out each of the last 5 seasons and only need to be our backup at best if not off the team altogether.
I just could not get over how timid he was and would go from either leaning too far forward off balance or the opposite end of the spectrum where he was completely back on his heels reacting the whole time where he is definitely not quick enough to adjust to NFL DEs.

What's really weird to me is that he did seem to get slightly better each game from weeks 1-3, to the point where I didn't think he needed to be benched, but Peat (of all people) ended up definitely being the best option.

1st rd pick with a bunch of good college film, and really only 1 true NFL season under his belt so he definitely deserves a chance to prove he's not a bust. However in no way would be content to trot Penning out for starting LT without some kind of competition. At a minimum we need to either re-sign Peat or sign Donovan Smith and let them battle it out for starting LT. Dennis Allen also didn't sound enthused about Ramczyk's knee and future so RT needs to be addressed as well. I imagine we will use an early pick on an OT. Penning could be a bust, Peat's last season could be a fluke (plus he wasn't great, just great for Peat lol) and he could be hurt in week 2.