ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- When it comes to the corporate flow chart for the Denver Broncos, John Elway is indeed Gary Kubiak’s boss.

Elway is the team’s chief football decision-maker, and Kubiak is the coach. But long before they took on their current roles, Kubiak was Elway’s teammate, road roommate and friend. When Kubiak went to the hospital following the Broncos’ loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Elway thought of the man in the ambulance -- not the coach.

"I was more concerned as a friend," Elway said.

Kubiak was diagnosed with a "complex migraine condition" and was released from a Denver-area hospital Monday afternoon. Elway said Monday that per doctors' recommendation, Kubiak will take a week off and return to work next Monday. He will not travel with the team or be on the sideline for the Broncos' game Thursday in San Diego. For that, Elway tabbed special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis as interim coach.

"The least disruptive situation, and that was Joe," Elway said. "[Offensive coordinator] Rick Dennison will handle the offense, Wade [Phillips] will handle the defense, Joe will handle the special teams. But also Joe has worked very closely with Gary in game management situations, as well as [director of football analytics] Mitch Tanney. And so we thought that was the best and easiest way to handle that situation."

DeCamillis said he will try to maintain business as usual, and Elway called it a "seamless" move to DeCamillis.

With a game three days away, getting the staff in order in Kubiak's absence was the short-term concern. Kubiak's long-term future with the team, however, was also on Elway’s mind Sunday night into Monday. Sunday was the second time Kubiak has left a stadium in an ambulance; he suffered a mini-stroke in 2013, when he was the coach of the Houston Texans.

Kubiak has since said he adjusted parts of the way he did his job and made changes in how he lives outside of coaching. This time around, Elway said all indications are that Kubiak will be able to resume his duties without issue.

"All I will say is we’re excited about Gary’s future," Elway said. "... But I'll let Gary talk about that when he gets back."

In the long-term view, Elway said, "The information that we received [Sunday] night about the different things that have happened, that he was going to be able to continue doing what he does, that's the best thing. When you go through these things ... really good things come out of it."

What that means for Elway is that after the initial shock of seeing Kubiak loaded into an ambulance, he should be able to continue in the job he has called a "dream come true, my dream job." As Kubiak has said, "I grew up in this organization."

"Obviously, there was a concern," Elway said. "Like I said, I'll let Gary talk about this when he gets back, but when we left the hospital [Sunday] night, we were very encouraged with everything that happened. Obviously, any time you have an episode like Gary had in 2013, what happened [Sunday] night is a big concern. But we left the hospital, and his family was very relieved with what they had and what went on. We feel very good about it."

The Broncos met as a team Monday afternoon and began to get ready to play the Chargers before the players had a practice at night.

"Hopefully we can go in there and get a win this week," DeCamillis said. "That’s the most important thing."