Alan Ball at free safety is terrible. I can only assume they didn’t draft a safety because they plan on signing a veteran in free agency. Gerald Sensabaugh is a free agent at strong safety, so if he’s not resigned, they’ll have to sign someone else in free agency.

3-4 Defensive End

Stephen Bowen, Marcus Spears, Jason Hatcher are all free agents at end. Best case scenario, they resign the promising young Bowen as a starter and one of the other two for depth. Otherwise, they’ll have to find someone through free agency. I don’t know why they didn’t focus on this position in the draft.

Cornerback 

They seem committed to Terence Newman, but depending on what the cap is next season, they might not be able to afford the overpaid, old, injury prone cornerback. If so, they’d replace him with a cheaper veteran because they didn’t add a cornerback until the 5th round of the draft. 

Draft Needs 

Cornerback

Their pass defense somehow got worse after Wade Phillips left. Terence Newman will be 33 soon and Mike “pass interference” Jenkins committed so many pass interference penalties that he earned the nickname “pass interference.” Their pass defense ranked 29^th in the league so at the very least they need depth at the position.

Drafted Josh Thomas (#143) 

Offensive Tackle

1^st year starter Doug Free actually had a solid year at left tackle. Marc Colombo at right was terrible though, really showing his age. He was benched on several occasions for Alex Barron who is worse and battled injuries on several occasions as well.

Drafted Tyron Smith (#9) 

Nose Tackle

Jay Ratliff is expected to move to 3-4 end in Rob Ryan’s new defensive scheme. This fills their hole at 3-4 end opposite Stephen Bowen/Igor Olshansky, but they now need a new nose tackle. They’ll look at Phil Taylor in the 2nd round and Jerrell Powe in the 3rd. 

Rush Linebacker

DeMarcus Ware led the league with 15.5 sacks, but outside of him, no one had 5. Anthony Spencer has not stepped up and become the elite rush linebacker they need opposite Ware.

Safety

At 185 pounds, Alan Ball is too small to consistently play safety. He also struggles in coverage and was partially responsible for their 29^th ranked pass defense.

Guard

Both starting guards are on the wrong side of 30 so young depth is needed unless they see Sam Young as a potential guard of the future.

Drafted David Arkin (#110) 

Center

Andre Gurode is also on the wrong side of 30.