Q >> We all know the draft is not an exact science but more like an at-bat and the best at it only hit three out of 10, but in your opinion what’s our best option: Move up to get “the QB”? Stay put and select the best player available? Or trade down and acquire draft capital and select a lower-tier QB later on?

— Gabriel Tamayo, Brownsville, Texas

Parker >> To continue the baseball analogy, most of the time in the first round you’re looking for doubles. Swing for the fences and you might hit a grand slam or you might whiff, send the bat flying into the stands and then retreat to the clubhouse to start updating your resume.

Of course, it’s easier to be comfortable taking the best player on the board and counting on him to make an impact if you’re not also looking for a quarterback.

Here’s how I look at Denver’s situation currently: This is not a one-draft roster fix. They need to stack a couple of good classes together to really infuse enough young, cheap talent into the mix to really start to turn the tide.

Look at some of the young, talented teams around the NFL. Detroit’s drafted 16 players the past two years, including four first-rounders and 10 total in the top 100 picks. Green Bay? 24 picks the past two years, three first-rounders and eight top-100 picks. Houston: 18, four first-rounders and nine top-100s.

Denver: 14 picks, no first-rounders, five in the top 100. The next two drafts would do well to look more like those other teams. Except you also have to find a quarterback. The sooner the better.

I’m in Camp Trade Down but for one big caveat:

If the quarterback you really feel strongly about makes it out of the top three then figure out how to get him. Sean Payton said he’s looking to fall in love. Trading up is a love move, not a like move. Not an “I-can-squint-and-see-J.J.-McCarthy-working-out-fine” move. You love him? Make sure you get him. If it’s not there, don’t force it and instead trade back. Take the extra capital and find as many good players as you can. That makes it easier to be aggressive a year from now to find a quarterback.

Bottom line: Trade down or answer the quarterback question. Don’t stay at No. 12 unless something fully unexpected happens like WR Rome Odunze or LT Joe Alt remaining on the board.

Q >> I was curious about our inside linebacker situation. Obviously Alex Singleton is still a starter, but who takes that spot next to him with Josey Jewell gone? I know we signed Cody Barton, but is he the answer? Or are we going to have a competition with the other ILBs on the roster? And where does Drew Sanders fit in with our team next year? I read somewhere that he might be moving to the edge.

— J. Juarez, Denver

Parker >> Singleton’s the starting point in the inside linebackers room, as you said. One of the more underrated stats from the 2023 season: Singleton played every defensive snap from Week 4 onward. The team left Miami after that 70-20 drubbing and didn’t take him off the field again the rest of the year. He ended up credited with 1,090 defensive snaps (97%). Obviously, you like players who don’t need to be subbed out but also probably don’t want your inside linebacker to have to do that.

Barton should be an upgrade over Jewell in coverage and has made a ton of tackles the past two seasons in Washington and Seattle, but doesn’t have the big-play numbers that Jewell did when comparing recent seasons. The Broncos would love it if they could get Jonas Griffith back to full health and on the field for a while. He missed the final nine games of 2022 with a foot injury, then tore his ACL in camp last summer. At 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, he brings a different skill set to the table if he can get back on track. After missing 26 straight games, though, that’s a question mark.

The big question, of course, is where Sanders ends up long term. When he was drafted, Payton called him a prototype inside linebacker with pass-rush ability. Eventually, in 2023, they decided they had to get him on the field and put him outside. By the end of the season, DC Vance Joseph and GM George Paton each forecasted a future on the edge. I’m not quite sure what to make of it at the moment. My hunch is they’d like it if he became a forceful middle-of-the-field player, but to be determined.