“In Elway We Trust.”

It’s a slogan you hear quite often from Broncos fans.

Yes, some orange and blue maniacs have been using it since John Elway’s playing days, but right now the phrase is as popular as ever.

Broncos Country has thrown its full and unwavering support behind the team’s general manager; in their eyes, he can do no wrong. If there’s anything close to a God in Denver at the moment, it’s John Elway, and the race for second isn’t close.

Elway’s not a bad choice to be the city’s most popular sports figure. What he’s done since he took over after the disastrous Josh McDaniels era has been fairly spectacular. Elway’s had the team contending year in and year out and they’ve played in two of the last three Super Bowls. Things under No. 7 have been *Larry David voice* pretty, pretty, pretty good for the Broncos.

And while the ship Denver sailed to a Super Bowl 50 title last year was undoubtedly built by Elway, it was navigated through choppy waters by a different man, a guy who doesn’t get nearly enough credit: Gary Kubiak. Or Captain Kubiak, to you.

The Broncos head coach is criminally underrated.

When Elway hired Kubiak to replace the turncoat John Fox, I must admit my first reaction was, “Well, at least he’s not John Fox.”

Yes, that would have been my overwhelming feeling toward anyone who was hired to replace the bumbling boob Fox, the man responsible for squandering multiple Super Bowl championship opportunities during Peyton Manning’s prime, but I digress.

It was easy to be worried at the time of the Kubiak hire that Elway had just brought in his old roommate, teammate and coordinator to be another buddy to have in town. Sure, Kubiak’s always had a brilliant football mind, but his disastrous finish in Houston (2-11 before a midseason canning) had plenty of fans worried.

But after watching how brilliantly Captain Kubiak guided the Broncos last season, there was no reason to fret at all. In retrospect, fans should have been thrilled when Elway brought Kubes back to the Mile High City.

Yet, even in post-Super Bowl euphoria, no one seems to want to give Kubiak much credit. In fact, some seem to dismiss what he did a season ago.

First and foremost, he couldn’t have handled a dicey and fragile quarterback situation any better. Kubiak played his cards perfectly, pulling and benching Peyton Manning at the exact right time – maintaining all along that No. 18 needed to get healthy. Then, with the No. 1 seed slipping away in Week 17, Kubiak made the exact right call switching back to Manning from Brock Osweiler, a move that propelled the Broncos to home field advantage throughout the AFC Playoffs and ultimately helped them bring another Lombardi Trophy to Denver.

Kubiak never lost control of his locker room. When a legend was on the verge of seeing his storybook ending derailed by a young kid with a rocket arm and great hair, Kubiak didn’t get caught up in the hype. He stuck with his gut and pushed all the right buttons, leading the Broncos on one of the more improbable Super Bowl runs in recent memory.

With OTAs kicking off on Tuesday, the 2016 campaign is officially upon us, and once again Captain Kubiak is at the helm of the ship, with another dicey quarterback situation on his hands. Mark Sanchez, Paxton Lynch and Trevor Siemian all have their good traits, but it’s unclear right now if any of the three should be a starting QB in the NFL.

The bad news for Broncos fans? Like it or not, one of those three guys will be under center Sept. 8 against Carolina. The good news? Based on how brilliantly he handled the team’s QB situation last year, Kubiak will be up for the task.

“We’re repping them all right down the middle. (Paxton’s) going to get a ton because I’m going to work our young guys probably more than I’m going to work the rest of the team,” Kubiak said while meeting with the media on Tuesday. “We have competition throughout our football team, so obviously everybody is starting from scratch right there with Mark and Trevor [too] … It will be very competitive for all of them.”

There will be plenty of time to debate who should start the Super Bowl rematch with the Panthers to open the 2016 title defense. But there’s no doubt about this: Kubiak will make the right decision.

“In Elway We Trust” is fine.

“In Kubiak We Trust” shouldn’t be far behind.