The last time John Elway was at the White House, he left with food poisoning and a prayer that he wouldn’t have to suit up that evening when the Broncos faced the Redskins.

It was Nov. 20, 1989, and the Broncos were in Washington for a Monday night game. Elway had breakfast at the White House that morning. Big mistake.

“I got so sick, it was like food poisoning,” he recalled. “So I couldn’t play. Chipped beef on toast. I’ve not had it since.

“Gary and I were on the only quarterbacks, so we ended up winning the game, Gary won the game. (Running back Steve) Sewell was the backup quarterback and he didn’t work out very well in warmups so I was laying on the table — they dressed me laying on the table — and said, ‘You got to go if something happens to go to Gary.’ So I’m laying on the table, and they had a little TV. And it had a coat hanger stuck in for the antenna. I didn’t care who won or who lost. All I wanted was Gary to make sure he got up every time. There was no way I could go.”

On Monday, Elway will return to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., this time as the general manager of the reigning Super Bowl champions. Surely he hopes to return with fonder, healthier memories as the team celebrates its world championship with President Barack Obama. But he and Kubiak also return with a lengthy to-do list as the Broncos rebuild.

The most pressing item: finding a new starter and developing the Broncos’ quarterback of the future.

The retirement of Peyton Manning was followed by the abrupt departure of Brock Osweiler, the guy Elway had pegged as the team’s future. But focus shifted, and the revolving door of the NFL welcomed veteran Mark Sanchez, the selection of Paxton Lynch in the first round and the development of second-year player Trevor Siemian.

“The first week and a half of (organized team activities) have been good. They’ve been getting a feel for it,” Elway said Wednesday from the Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, where he’s competing in the CoBank Colorado Senior Open this week. “I think Paxton has done a nice job getting a feel for coming off from underneath the center. He’s athletic, so I don’t think it’s going to take him long. Plus he did some of that in college, so it’s not like he’s never done it. He looks comfortable. They’re all doing really well.”

After last season, Elway praised Kubiak for how he handled the Broncos’ quarterback situation when Manning was sidelined with a foot injury and eventually returned in the team’s regular-season finale. The changes, questioned and criticized at the time, proved to be the right ones for the team, but the difficulty of the decisions were not lost on Elway.

“(Gary) did a great job last year, and obviously it wasn’t exactly the way Brock wanted to see it handled,” Elway said. Obviously I think that had something to do with where he was, but obviously Houston wanted him that bad to go ahead and pay him a whole heck of a lot of money. Gary knows the position — he’s coached the position; he’s played it — so he has a good feel for it. He handled it well last year, and he’ll find the right guy this year, whoever it may be.”

Improving the offense was a priority for Elway this offseason after watching last year’s group lean heavily on the defense. With newcomers on the line, at tight end, in the offensive backfield and of course at QB, Elway is confident this year’s group will not only be an improvement but will help the Broncos’ league-leading defense replicate and even exceed the team’s showing in 2015.

“I think that if we can be better offensively, we’ll take some pressure off them,” he said. “If we can do a better job of staying on the field, pick up some first downs, put some drives together, run the ball better and we keep them fresh, then yeah.”

Doing so will require signing Von Miller to a long-term deal before the July 15 deadline. Miller received the team’s exclusive franchise tag but has yet to sign the tender and has held out of offseason workouts as the sides negotiate.

Talks with Miller’s representatives are ongoing, Elway said, and discussions with agents for inside linebacker Brandon Marshall and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders have started, as well. Marshall, a restricted free agent, has yet to sign his second-round tender, and Sanders is in the final year of the three-year contract he signed in 2014.

“We’re working on them, too,” Elway said. “I’ve gone back and forth with their agents. The ideal thing would be to get all three of them done (by mid-July). That’s kind of the goal.”

Earlier this offseason, the Broncos restructured the contract of outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware to clear some cap room and to fit what defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said would be a revised role in the defense. But Ware has been held out of OTAs so far with a lingering back issue — the same injury that sidelined him for five games last season.

“Yeah, there’s always a concern with that,” Elway said. “Especially with the back, because you never really know. And he’s such an integral part of it and his leadership qualities, so obviously we’re hopeful he can get that going. We’re going to manage him, and we knew that coming in this year, to take care of him. Yeah, there’s a little bit of a concern there.”

But on Monday, if only for a few hours, the concerns and the to-do list will, for the last time, give way to celebration as Elway joins his players, coaches and Obama at the White House — chipped beef (he hopes) not included.