Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

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

Terrific name, Gabriel. And a good place to start this week’s mailbag.

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.

To honor WrestleMania 40, which current Denver players or coaches could easily transition into babyface or heel pro wrestlers?

— Ed Helsinki, Auburn, N.Y.

Great question, Ed. First guy that comes to mind is Quinn Meinerz. He’s got the whole package — hair, belly, agility, on-field demeanor and a pretty good scowl when he wants it. A tag team with fellow guard Ben Powers, perhaps, or a young up-and-comer like tackle Demontrey Jacobs.

Like Meinerz, outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper is a really friendly dude, but seems like he could turn heel as a wrestler.

There are probably more. Pound-for-pound, Ja’Quan McMillian should be in the conversation.

Hey Parker, thanks for taking time to answer questions. I continue to see Sean Payton adding former Saints players to his roster. Is this kind of thing “normal” for a successful coach? Do other coaches tend to bring back players they are familiar with? In some way, I suppose it’s not unexpected, or, is Payton attempting to create the same team he had in NOLA?

— Ann, Boulder

It’s not just players, either, Ann. This offseason two of Payton’s biggest hires have been longtime Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. as a senior offensive assistant and longtime Saints scout Cody Rager as the vice president of player personnel. Carmichael makes 10 coaches on Payton’s staff who worked for or played for him in New Orleans, joining senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt, outside linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, passing game coordinator John Morton, offensive line coach Zach Strief, tight ends coach Declan Doyle, assistant head coach Mike Westhoff, special teams assistant Chris Banjo and offensive quality control coach Logan Kilgore. Throw in head strength coach Dan Dalrymple and VP of player health and performance Beau Lowery as well.

Last year during the offseason Payton scoffed at the idea that he was adding New Orleans players for culture purposes. He said Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers and Zach Allen were about culture. His stance on the Saints players was and continues to be that the familiarity means he knows exactly how he’s going to use a player or what he envisions the role is going to be. So, it could be something that’s just as simple as, all things being roughly equal between two players, Payton’s going to pick one he’s familiar with.

Sometimes, too, need and familiarity align. Defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, for example, graded out as one of the better run defenders in the NFL last year. He would have been a good target for the Broncos regardless of where he played his first four years.

All that being said, it certainly doesn’t go unnoticed in the locker room and around the building that almost every level of the operation has been infused with people Payton’s worked with previously.

Hi Parker, 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

Good questions, JJ. 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.

Any word on how Greg Dulcich is healing? I feel like we’ve seen flashes of his potential, but his injuries are an issue. Do we go after Brock Bowers with the No. 12 pick? Dude’s super talented.

— Mike, Denver

Nothing super recent, Mike, though Dulcich was feeling better by the end of the season and was frustrated that he didn’t get back onto the field down the stretch. He was adamant that the foot issue was a freaky thing and that his balky right hamstring had been improved for a while.

Obviously, only time will tell on that. Payton had an interesting comment on him in Orlando when I asked about a pair of young players who have shown promise but also been hurt in Dulcich and safety Caden Sterns:

“In the evaluation of them, I think it’s an important year, take for instance Greg,” Payton said. “You wouldn’t say it’s a crossroads year, but he feels that urgency to put this in his rearview mirror and hopefully we can do that.”

Payton and Denver were hopeful Dulcich could be a versatile offensive weapon in 2023, but obviously that didn’t happen. It’s an important part of the operation. If quarterback doesn’t materialize in the first round of the draft, the Broncos could go corner or tackle or edge or defensive line. They’ve got plenty of needs. But it would also figure that they’d be interested in a guy like Bowers, who could be a matchup problem for Payton’s offense.

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.