Today’s question about the Broncos comes from Dan Pradere. To submit a question for consideration, send an e-mail to The Denver Post’s Jeff Legwold.

Q: What would it take for Champ Bailey to move to free safety? We all saw him get torched by Torrey Smith. Although he’s still a great cornerback, I do think he’s lost a step or two. It was obvious Rahim Moore is completely lost in zone coverage. Denver has a history of making it to the playoffs and then getting blown out because of poor pass defense. Can you imagine what it would be like for Denver to have Bailey playing deep coverage as free safety?

A: Dan, you touched on a popular topic after the crushing loss to the Raven on Saturday.

Bailey was in Smith’s jet wash on two touchdown plays and may have been in tow for a third scoring pass had Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco not overthrown the ball.

That said, after breaking down Bailey’s games for years, it appears he expects help on the first scoring pass to Smith simply because of the way he’s aligned at the snap. He looks to have outside leverage and plays the play that way throughout.

With outside leverage, or playing the outside shoulder of the receiver, that would indicate he thinks he has help from a safety to the inside. He played the play that way, and he rarely fumbles that kind of assignment, and the safety (in this case Rahim Moore) moves upfield to take a receiver crossing over the middle.

Moore may have thought the ball was going to the underneath receiver so was trying to make the play there. Or Bailey got the call wrong or Moore got the call wrong.

Either way it’s a coverage bust, one of several subtle and not-so-subtle ones in the game, that resulted in a score. The other touchdown Bailey simply misplayed — “I usually make that play, I have to make that play,” is how he put it.

Smith is one of the fastest receivers in the league — he ran a 4.44 40-yard dash on the electronic clock at the combine in 2011 — and the Maryland strength coaches told scouts he was one of the strongest players, pound for pound, in the program’s history. So, he is a difficult matchup for anyone and was certainly a difficult matchup for Bailey Saturday.

But four weeks earlier Bailey held Smith to one catch for 14 yards in the Broncos win in Baltimore, so even while Bailey looked physically over-matched on the scoring plays against Smith this past weekend, he locked him down a month before, usually running stride for stride.

So, for the Broncos it’s just a question of the best corner having one of his worst days. If they believe that, and right now that’s the indication they’ve given, it’s business as usual as they head into the 2013 season. They still consider Bailey their best cornerback.

Asked Monday if Bailey could move to safety, Broncos coach John Fox said “I don’t see that.”

Logically there is always some attraction to moving Bailey into a position where he would have the opportunity to create more turnovers and he has always been one of the best open-field tacklers to ever play at cornerback in the post-merger NFL.

Bailey, who just completed his 14th season and was named to his 12th Pro Bowl, has said he would consider making a move to safety if he’s “into my 16th season or around there.”

He’s also said, “I’m a realist, though, if I see myself on tape and I think it’s time to make a move, I’ll know it’s time to make a move, I’ll be the first to see it, I’ll be the first to know it.”

Many personnel people in the league will always say cornerbacks are like running backs, that when they lose the ability to compete at the highest level that it happens quickly, rather than gradually over a season or two as it does for most other positions.

So, Bailey, like the Broncos, will have to give an honest evaluation of where last Saturday’s game fits into the big picture.

Jeff Legwold: jlegwold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jeff_legwold