Our FO must feel so snake-bitten on high OL draft choices that they figure they can get "average" linemen now in the 7th round or as UDFA, so why spend a high draft pick for an OL prospect who might turn out to be average. It's been more or less working for them, hard to argue with last year... Getting a bunch of average or just below average OL talent for cheap, so they can spend the $$ in other areas... Look at the mileage we got out of Bowie and Bailey last year, plus Sweezy, and of course Lemuel Jean-Pierre. At least they figured out to move on from truly awful linemen like Paul McQuistan at LT (though almost serviceable as a guard).
Honestly, I see them offering Okung a vet minimum type of 2-year contract laden with games started incentives. And maybe the same with Carpenter. Carpenter has come back from some serious schift in terms of his injuries he's rehabbed. Give the guy some props for having the heart to do the work and rehab and get back, twice IIRC. This year, Carp has been serviceable, even decent at times. I just see the team at least making a Moneyball offer to try to keep Okung and probably Carp too, if the price is right.
Okung's rash of penalties this year are because he's more injured than ever, and he's trying to get a jump to compensate. I just really think it's unfair to come down on a guy who IS an all-pro talent when healthy, and by all accounts I've ever heard, the issue is not heart or effort. Remember the torn pectoral in 2010 on the cheap shot play by Trent Cole? That's an injury which I suspect has never quite fully healed to normal strength. The toe ligament last year, the recurring high ankle sprains a couple years on each leg, and now a torn labrum/sprained shoulder he's been playing through this year, in combination with who knows what other ailments.
Maybe we will move on from a glass Okung; I'm almost talking myself into it. If there's any chance of him being healthy for most of a seasonthough, I bet we keep him.