HAD to? No, but, while the draft's a crap shoot in all rounds, the odds of top players are self-evidently and disproportionately best in early rounds. Until now, Sambrailo was our only second rounder since Franklin (a late second at that.) Beadles was a second rounder the year before but, before that we took no linemen early since George Foster with #20 overall pick of 2003.
Yes, Foster sucked hard (so was replaced with 3rd round pick and recent SB Champ Ryan Harris a few years later) and Beadles was a scrub SB liability for whom Jax overpaid—but expecting anything BETTER from LATER picks like Sambrailo (to say nothing of a late 3rd rounder like Schofield) was foolish at best and delusional at worst. Blame the coaches if we must, but guys who can't "coach up" 1st and 2nd rounders will do no better with 3rd and 5th rounders.
It's funny to continue debating this in the context of whether last years 1st round pick or the previous years 7th round pick is our Franchise QB; who said the starting QBs "had to be first rounders"? Pretty much every starting QB for the last 30 years except Brady and Romo—but any random waiver wire reject can protect them?