When trying to understand the wreckage that is the current version of the Denver Broncos, make sure to remember John Elway’s ultra-destructive decision to banish defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

When King John made the move, I said he was risking the future of the franchise. Vance Joseph, rookie coach, might have found success working alongside one of the great defensive minds in NFL history.

Without Wade?

Utter chaos. Since Wade walked, the Broncos have lost 14 of 21, leaving Joseph and maybe even Elway standing near the cliff of unemployment.

There’s something cosmic about the timing of Phillips’ return to Denver, where he performed such magnificent labor. The football gods are delivering justice.

The Broncos’ defense is fresh off one of its worst performances of the decade. In Sunday’s 34-16 loss to the Jets, befuddled defenders delivered a rare double. They were astoundingly atrocious against the run and the pass. Remember, just two seasons ago Phillips and the Broncos ranked fourth in the NFL in fewest points allowed.

Amid the Broncos’ agony, Phillips returns Sunday with the unbeaten and scary Los Angeles Rams. His defense ranks, as usual, in the NFL’s top 10. He’s surrounded himself, as usual, with highly talented and highly unsavory defenders. Phillips, 71, and the Rams could soon rule the NFL.

Dan Reeves, who coached the Broncos to three Super Bowls, was laughing on the phone Wednesday morning as he talked about his friend Wade.

In 1989, Phillips and Reeves designed the most underrated defense in Bronco history. The 1977 Orange Crush and the 2015 Orange Maniacs did not lead the NFL in total defense. The 1989 defense did, led by the violent acts of Steve Atwater, Dennis Smith and Karl Mecklenburg.

“He knows exactly what kind of football player he wants,” Reeves says. “He has a great football mind, and he keeps it simple. He makes sure the people within his system are going to be successful. He gives them a lot of responsibility and a lot of credit.

“Wherever he goes, he’s going to be successful.”

We know about his success in Colorado.

On Feb. 7, 2016, minutes after the Broncos silenced Cam Newton and the Panthers to win the Super Bowl, Elway stood in the middle of joyous locker room and wondered if the Broncos’ defense ranked as the best of all time. He lavishly and accurately praised Phillips, designer of that defense.

“I know one thing, I wouldn’t want to play them,” Elway said. “Glad I didn’t have to play them.”

Then, 48 weeks later, Elway declined to pay the cash required to renew Phillips’ contract. The move made no sense in January 2017. It makes even less sense today.

When Phillips departed Colorado, he was 69, but he was not, and never will become, a grumpy old man. He’s funny and honest and humble. I remember sitting at a table with him during an interview session a few days before Super Bowl 50.

Wade casually talked about a strange but true story: The Broncos wanted to hire Joseph as defensive coordinator in 2015, but the Bengals refused to release Joseph from his contract.

”I was second place at Denver,” Phillips said in his trademark drawl/mumble.

The second-place senior citizen coach jelled with Bronco defenders nearly a half-century younger. He expertly worked with a group of dangerous eccentrics, Derek Wolfe, Aqib Talib, Von Miller. He constructed a defense of historic greatness, and that’s according to Elway.

Phillips returns Sunday at the worst time for the Broncos and, come to think of it, the best time for the old coach. His former employers are picking through the ruins while he’s, as usual, ascendant.

“He’s hip for his age,” Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman told ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry. “Some guys’ age change, but their soul don’t. And that’s like coach, his young soul never left him.”

Let me offer a prediction for Sunday’s game:

The young soul will triumph, yet again.