Our Defensive Line:

Justin Smith DE/DT (coming back from tendon surgery, turns 34 next season, final year of contract coming up)

Ray McDonald DE/DT. (Justin is better, but Ray is top notch.)

Glen Dorsey DT/DE. (To be seen -- but I'm very optimistic)

Undrafted, unheralded back-ups

Ian Williams NT
Lamar Divens NT
Tony Jerod-Eddie DE
Will Tukuafu DE
Demarcus Dobbs DE

The drop off from our starters to our back ups proved to be too steep at the end of last season. Fortunately this year's draft seems very well stocked with the sort of players Lord Fangio prefers.

Sharrif Floyd, DE/DT Florida. Jessie Williams, DT/DE Alabama. DaTone Jones, DE/DT UCLA. John Jenkins, NT/DE Georgia. And a host of others.

This year seems the perfect time to spend a First Round choice on a defensive lineman. Not a developmental project but a guy who can be expected to start and play at a high level within his first 2 or 3 years.

Our Line Backers:

Patrick Willis ILB

Navaro Bowman ILB

Aldon Smith OLB/DE

Ahmed Brooks OLB/DE

Parys Harelson OLB/DE (Parys was on IR last season after tearing a tendon in pre season. He's a high quality back up for either A. Smith or A Brooks)

Darius Fleming ILB/OLB/DE. (Fleming spent last season on IR. At 6'2" 244 he played both OLB and DE at Notre Dame. He'll probably be slated to back-up on the inside with the Niners. A quality football player.)

Cam Johnson OLB/DE. (Johnson was a draftnick's dream coming out of Virginia in terms of size, speed, and strength. But he wasn't productive in college. A really interesting project.)

Taking a LB in this year's draft would probably be a luxury pick. We might take a flyer on someone on Day 3 of the draft.

Our Defensive Secondary:

Carlos Rodgers (31). (I think the fans who want Rodgers gone are nuts. Quality starter.)

Tarell Brown (28). (I didn't think Brown would ever turn into a quality starting CB. I was wrong.)

Chris Culliver (24). (Immature and dumb as a stump, but on the way to becoming a quality starting CB. The Ravens went after him in the Superbowl because he was coming off a horrible week. But don't forget how well he was playing before he shot himself in the foot.)

Donte Whitner (27). (One of the best tackling Strong Safeties in the league. Smart guy. A leader. Fits perfectly into what Fangio wants his defense to do.)

Craig Dahl. FS. (27). Starting experience. Will compete for the Starting job.

C.J. Spillman. FS. Sp. Tms. (26) Will compete for the Starting job.

Trenton Robinson. FS. (23) Will compete for the Starting job.

Michael Thomas FS. (24) Will compete for the starting job.

My bet is the Niners will take a FS with their second pick in the draft. He'll compete, but he'll have to be some kind of player to win a starting job on this defense. He'll have a lot to learn.

I think we're looking for 2 fairly high profile guys to add to this defense through the draft. And even if we get lucky, and get exactly the guys the front office wants... I doubt either of them will be named starters in their first year.