Who led the Rams in penalties this season? Ninety-nine percent of the time you can just toss out the name Alex Barron and have a pretty good shot at being right.
Not this season though. Knucklehead extraordinaire OG Richie Incognito led the team with 13 pentalies (declined and accepted) accouting for 89 lost yards. He had 11 penalties accepted, 5 false starts and 3 holding and at least one memorable, ill-timed unsportsmanlike conduct.
Incognito is an idiot who couldn't even muster up the cajones to play in the season's last game (head coach Jim Haslett slapped a candy bar out of his hans on the sideline at that game). Fortunately, the Rams lost nothing with Adam Goldberg and John Greco replacing Incognito and Jacob Bell as the starting guards for that game. Let Greco have Incognito's spot next season. 89 yards for a team that struggled mightly to score all season; Incognito's brand of incompetence is exactly what this team needs to purge.
Now, lest you think Alex Barron magically got over his super human like ability to draw penalties...Despite having three seasons prior to '08 to learn the snap count, Barron collected 11 penalties, 9 accepted, including 7 false starts. Seven false starts! That's actually an improvement, two less than his 9 from last season and 13 the year before.
The Rams have lots of work to do on their offensive line and several means of going about it. For me, it starts with dumping Incognito, who is an unrestricted free agent after this season anyway, and Barron. Barron would be useful in a backup role since this is the last year of his contract. I'd accept Incognito as a backup, but I suspect he might fancy himself a starter and will be seeking that kind of deal on the market.