HOUSTON — Pat Bowlen has a plan and the plan remains in place, one compliant with the NFL and operating with success.

The Broncos’ longtime owner established a trust in the late 1990s to serve as a vehicle to transfer controlling ownership of the team to one of his seven children.

In 2014, Bowlen announced he would step down from his day-to-day duties of running the team because of Alzheimer’s. In his absence, and until the team’s next owner is named, the team is in the hands of three trustees — team president/CEO Joe Ellis, general counsel/executive vice president Rich Slivka and Denver attorney Mary Kelly — with Ellis making the daily decisions. It is up to those three to select Bowlen’s successor.

The transition process has raised questions from outsiders about transparency and the timetable for succession. But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday the Broncos have been compliant with ownership rules and remain under the watch of Pat Bowlen.

“They have an owner: It’s Pat Bowlen,” Goodell said. “Unfortunately he has significant health challenges right now. I worked with Pat directly so I know he set up a system that was compliant with our rules if such an unfortunate situation occurred. And Pat is someone I deeply admire and respect, so the trust has worked effectively in the short term. But it’s a decision at some point in time that the membership will have to make — the Finance Committee and the broader membership — of whether that’s compliant and whether any changes they make beyond the trust will be consistent with our policies.”

Despite a three-year whirlwind that has included, among other things, a Super Bowl victory, two major retirements (quarterback Peyton Manning and coach Gary Kubiak), a pair of coaching staff overhauls, and last year the loss of a stadium naming rights partner with Sports Authority’s bankruptcy, the Broncos have enjoyed continued prosperity, on the field and off.

Maintaining that remains a priority, Ellis told The Denver Post.

“We’ve stayed in touch with the league, we’re in compliance with their policies as of now,” Ellis said. “We will always stay in compliance and if we have to alter a few things, we will request for an alteration of some sort to stay in compliance. We’ve received signals from the league that they have tremendous respect from Pat Bowlen and they will do everything they can to try to accommodate his wishes when it comes to his succession plan. League rules call for one child or one person to be the controlling owner…I think the family is eager to hold onto the team, and hopefully a child earns the right to get there. That’s what we’ve said all along.”

During his annual Super Bowl news conference, Goodell was also asked about the Tennessee Titans, who were fined by the NFL in 2015 because of their ownership structure. Amy Adams Strunk is in charge of the team but is not a controlling owner

At the Super Bowl a year ago, Goodell said the league requires a single owner to represent a team because “we work on the basis of 32 individual owners each having a vote and when league matters come up, whatever they may be, we work on a vote of 24 of the 32. It’s a very important principle to owners and their partners. They want to know who their partner is. They want to know that they’re responsible for how the team is operated locally and they want to know that their partner is sitting at the table when they’re making difficult decisions.”

He re-emphasized that point Wednesday, his comments applying to all teams.

“The issue that we’ve had over the last couple of years is a designation of who’s going to represent the clubs,” Goodell explained. “That has changed to some extent over the last couple of years. The fundamental aspect of our policy is to make sure that we have an individual that has the ultimate authority over that franchise who can make those decisions, including league-level decisions as well as locally. And it’s clear — it’s clear to ownership group and it’s also clear to membership.”

In Denver, that one representative is Pat Bowlen, although the operations of the team reside with the trust.

“(Pat) is still our owner. That’s how we look at it,” Ellis said. “I know the team is in the trust. I serve as his surrogate for now. But there’s no update on the children. When a child is ready, you and everyone else will know.”