Today’s question about the Broncos comes from Dillon Bobbitt in North Carolina. To submit a question for consideration, send an e-mail to The Denver Post’s Jeff Legwold.

Q: I am hearing and reading a lot of buzz about (the Broncos’) secondary. … I think it will be smart to starting looking through the draft for Champ Bailey’s replacement. I also don’t think people should forget about Omar Bolden; he is young and will find his groove. My real point … is to ask if people have forgotten about (safety) Quinton Carter? He has experience … has a lot of upside and is a great tackler and big hitter. Since he has been out with an injury, he has to be hungry to get back on the field. How do you see his future with the Broncos, and what role do you think he will play?

A: Dillon, Carter is certainly in the Broncos’ plans, but how much depends on how he rebounds from multiple surgeries on his left knee, including a microfracture procedure last season just after he went on injured reserve.

It has been a tough run for him since Dec. 18, 2011, when Carter said he suffered the initial injury to his knee against the Patriots. Carter has always traced the injury back to that game.

But he played with the pain for the remainder of the ’11 season and into offseason workouts last spring and has said he had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams where the injury didn’t really show up. He finished the ’11 season with 10 starts and had interceptions in playoff games against the Steelers and the Patriots to close out the year.

But the pain in the knee persisted into last summer’s training camp. And when Carter suffered a hamstring injury in a training camp collision with Eric Decker on July 27 — the team was practicing inside the bubble at the Family Sports complex in Centennial because of a rainstorm that day — the root of the knee pain was also discovered in the exams on the hamstring.

So as a result, Carter, who called the hamstring injury “a blessing in disguise,” had arthroscopic surgery on the knee.

Carter returned to practice Aug. 30 and then played on special teams for the most part after the regular season began. He then aggravated the knee early in the season, was held out of the Sept. 30 game against the Raiders and had the microfracture surgery shortly thereafter.

Asked Thursday at the scouting combine about how Carter’s injury rehab was going, Broncos coach John Fox said:

“His rehab is going fantastic. … I just saw him, actually, the morning we left to come over here. His rehab is going great. I thought he had a good rookie year. Last year he was on the shelf. We’ll probably be getting him back.”

In terms of playing time, Carter will initially, depending on how much he can do on the field when training camp begins, be looking at competing for situational work in the defense.

It would be much like the role of the player who replaced him after his surgery, Jim Leonhard. Leonhard played 24.3 percent of the defensive snaps last season, mostly in the team’s dime package (six defensive backs).

Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has used the dime in more situations than Dennis Allen did in his time as the Broncos coordinator, so there is more room for situational players to get some work with Del Rio on the headset.

Mike Adams, who has a year remaining on his contract for $1.75 million in the coming season, and Rahim Moore figure to open the offseason as the starters at safety once again. Fox called Moore one of the Broncos’ “most improved” players last season and said he expects Moore to bounce back from the coverage mistake late in the playoff loss to the Ravens.

Del Rio did use four safeties at once in a seven-defensive back look the Broncos used on some passing situations, so there is room for Carter to carve out a niche if he is healthy enough to get back into drills.

So, there is still some uncertainty there for the former fourth-round pick, but the Broncos have the expectation that he will get himself back into the mix.

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