A small portion of cafeteria food was placed in the middle of John Elway’s otherwise meticulously organized desk.

John Fox had just exited the office, cracking laughter as he left.

Hanging on a large board to Elway’s left were nameplates of every Broncos player, magnetized beneath their positions in depth-chart order.

Elway built that board. He let Fox arrange the depth chart.

As the Broncos’ executive vice president of football operations, Elway is the man responsible for building the Broncos’ 53-man roster. He hired Fox to coach it.

Each week, and throughout the week, Elway meets with Fox to discuss the previous game or any number of issues that need to be addressed in their common pursuit of Super Bowl XLVIII.

Does Elway ever talk with Fox about playing time for players he put on this team?

“I do, and I don’t,” Elway said. “I ask about certain players, but I don’t order. I let them make that decision.”

Elway built the Broncos’ roster and then pretty much got out of the way.

“I’ve always been of the belief that as a leader you serve,” Fox said. “People work with you not for you. John’s that way. He has a unique perspective. He played at a very high level. He played arguably the hardest position to play in sport. As a coach, you’ve got your own dogged way to look at things. That perspective John brings is a good thing.”

Thank goodness for Elway’s leadership style. On a team that has quarterback Peyton Manning, imagine if Elway was also the hyper-micromanager-type? The entire building would shake with the heebie-jeebies.

In less than three years, Elway has transformed a 4-12 Broncos team he inherited into one that has gone 18-1 in its past 19 regular-season games.

It’s not supposed to be this easy. There are NFL general managers who started in the business cutting up video tape, scouting in the desolate reaches of the South, grinding through waiver-wire rules and administrative regulations, working their way up to the top front-office job, and never came close to achieving this type of success.

Elway pretty much went from Hall of Fame quarterback to architect of the NFL’s prohibitive favorite to win it all.

“We’re 7-1, and it looks pretty, but the encouraging thing is I think everybody realizes we still have a lot of areas where we can get better,” Elway said. “We’ve turned the ball over too much. I think we’re a minus 1 in the turnover ratio. And Kansas City is what?”

He dumped his plate of half-eaten food and started flipping through an NFL statistical document that showed Kansas City leading the NFL with a plus-12 turnover ratio, while the Broncos lead the NFL with 11 lost fumbles.

The Chiefs are 8-0 and lead the AFC West. The Broncos are right behind at 7-1. The teams play twice in the next four weeks.

“What’s encouraging is there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Elway said. “We have not peaked out yet.”

Go back to what many would call a premature end to the Broncos’ 2012 season. Elway couldn’t throw the ball for Manning in a playoff loss to Baltimore on a bitter cold January evening. But he could strengthen the team around him.

His five top free-agent signings — Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Shaun Phillips and Terrance Knighton on defense; Wes Welker and Louis Vasquez on offense — have all been hits. Extra-base hits.

“They have all fit very well,” Elway said. “I’m proud of them in that they’re a good group of guys, and they like each other, and they play well together.”

The draft has not gone so well. But then, on a team good enough to win 17 regular-season games in a row over two years, where’s a rookie going to play? The offense Elway put together is flat- out the league’s best.

“Offensively, to me the biggest thing was to solidify the inside, and we did that with Vasquez,” Elway said. “He’s come in and been tremendous.”

Vasquez has been a nice part. Manning has been a machine.

“It really was amazing how well he played,” Elway said. “But you have to look at how the whole offense has played. That’s where (offensive coordinator) Adam Gase has done a tremendous job with the offensive staff. For Manning to be that proficient, everybody has got to be doing their job right.”

Denver’s defense was playing nowhere near championship-caliber level until last week against the Redskins, when linebackers Von Miller and Wesley Woodyard shared the field for the first time.

“To me, we’re better talent-wise on the defensive side (than last year),” Elway said.

Elvis Dumervil is gone, but Phillips has more sacks. Knighton has brought a backfield-disruption force to the interior front, and Rodgers-Cromartie, second-year strong safety Duke Ihenacho and rookie Kayvon Webster have upgraded the secondary.

From Elway’s chair, though, there isn’t much conversation about what’s been accomplished. He brings Fox in to talk about how they can get better.

“To me, everybody has a responsibility,” Elway said. “We’ve got good people. We’ve got a good coaching staff, good people in the personnel department. Everybody has different opinions here and there. Questions why. But for the most part they’re hired to do their job. I don’t feel like it’s my position to stunt what they do.”

Mike Klis: mklis@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikeklis

Good Broncos, bad Broncos

There’s more good than bad when a team is 7-1 at the halfway point of the season. But we found an equal portion of both:

THE GOOD

The Manning Machine: Quarterback Peyton Manning leads the NFL in nearly every individual passing category. And the Broncos are averaging a preposterous 42.9 points per game — 12.5 more than next-best Chicago.

Special teams: There are three football units, and the Broncos are dominant in two of them. Matt Prater is 12-of-12 in field goals — including 6-of-6 from 40-49 yards — punter Britton Colquitt has put 11 kicks inside the 20 with just one touchback, and Trindon Holliday is the league’s only returner with a touchdown off a kickoff and a punt.

Von Miller is back: The linebacker’s suspension was for six games, not 16. Better days are ahead for the Broncos’ defense.

THE BAD

Ryan Clady is done: Can a team lose one of league’s best left tackles and win it all?

Fumble! The biggest culprit has been Manning, who has lost four of the Broncos’ league-most 11. The good news is lead running back Knowshon Moreno has not fumbled. Backup Montee Ball has two, and Ronnie Hillman had one that sent him to the bench.

The schedule: None of the Broncos’ seven wins have come against teams with a winning record. The next four games — at San Diego, home vs. Kansas City, at New England and at Kansas City — figure to offer a much sterner test.