There were plenty of holes. We just tried to fill them with FAs, guys off the street, pizza deliverymen, guys that never played the position, etc.
However, you are right. Drafting for upside instead of need squandered several years we could have made playoff runs but for gaping holes.
(Remember when we got rid of our productive long snapper in order to draft some athletic snapper because he could also play special teams? that was a nightmare. We had a lot of guys that could not play being shoved into positions they needed to learn...at a time we just needed someone solid in that position. Quite a few on the OL, the gap that Irvin left when he left, I imagine there were 6-7 that really hurt us. Remember when we were having Richard Sherman and freaking Earl Thomas return punts because we never bothered to just get a punt returner? I was vocally pissed because we kept Procise, when we needed to keep that kid who returned punts. He wasn't going to be a great RB but he was a good returner and that was what we needed. The resulting short fields from bad returns probably almost certainly cost us key playoff position if not home field playoff opportunity.
We had plenty of holes. We just never filled them or filled them with people that really were not prepared for that role.)