SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Pat Bowlen has a way of understating what most people would call a big deal. Maybe that’s the trick to owning the Broncos for going on his 30th season.

During that time, Bowlen has fired three head coaches and watched his team get creamed in three Super Bowls. He inexplicably lost a hot, young quarterback, Jay Cutler, to a personality dispute with a hotheaded young coach, Josh McDaniels. He also won back-to-back Super Bowls in the final two years of John Elway’s playing career, then 13 years later hired back that Vince Lombardi Trophy- winning quarterback to lead his football operations department.

Together, Bowlen and Elway signed the most famous quarterback in free-agent history last year, Peyton Manning.

And so, while the orange and blue may have turned a couple shades of red over the Elvis Dumervil fax fiasco last week, Bowlen hardly was overwhelmed with embarrassment.

“Not really,” Bowlen said Monday at the NFL meetings. “I’ve been around here for quite a few years. I’ve seen just about everything. This is not unusual.”

Taking a break from a picnic-table lunch with several of his employees on a bright, warm day in the desert, Bowlen stopped for a few minutes to talk about the Broncos’ offseason.

Until the Dumervil snafu, Elway was utilizing Bowlen’s cash to put together a strong offseason haul that added wide receiver Wes Welker, guard Louis Vasquez, cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, defensive tackle Terrance Knighton and middle linebacker Stewart Bradley.

“John has done a great job,” Bowlen said. “But, of course, we haven’t played any football games yet, and that’s when we’ll find out.”

After the big signing frenzy last week, it was revealed that contract structure was one of the Broncos’ greatest recruiting tools. Namely, the Broncos lured free agents with front-loaded deals rich in cash signing bonuses.

Rodgers-Cromartie received a whopping $4.2 million signing bonus on an otherwise underwhelming one-year, $5 million contract. Vasquez received a $5 million signing bonus on his four-year, $23.5 million deal. Welker got $4 million on his two-year, $12 million contract. Even special-teams player David Bruton was given a $1.2 million bonus on his $2 million payout for 2013.

“You get what you pay for,” Bowlen said. “These are football players, and we know how good they are and how good they’re not. To get them, you pay them.”

USA Today graded the league’s 32 teams on their offseason developments Monday, and the Broncos were one of four teams to receive an A grade. Bowlen’s wisdom from experience, though, doesn’t allow him to get overly excited about victories in March.

Where else would Bowlen like to see his team improve?

“That’s what we’re trying to do right now,” he said. “Ask me that question in July, when we get ready to open training camp.”

Mike Klis: 303-954-1055, mklis@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikeklis