The fact is that he is our best option at this time at left guard. Is he ideal? No. Neither are a quarter of the guards in the league right now. With a 32 team elite league like the NFL, human beings with the abilities to have the size, demeaner, athleticism, brains, and general talent to play the positions are rare. Couple that with the injury rates of recent years and the conscious decisions by the most elite of these athletes in college and high school to move to the defensive line where the potential money is better and the snap counts are fewer.

Any improvement by Penning can be seen as "great" in a position of critical need.