Broncos coach Gary Kubiak is cheaper to please than quarterback Peyton Manning.

Denver is now a championship contender on a budget.

On the opening day of NFL free agency, front-office executive John Elway did what’s best for his new coach and the bottom line rather than what might be most appealing to Manning, who has expensive tastes.

So say goodbye to sensational tight end Julius Thomas, who took his sublime talent and tender body to beautiful downtown Jacksonville, where the gosh-awful Jaguars are closing in on a deal that will pay him a salary of approximately $9 million per year.

The Broncos are now all about the down-and-dirty, lunch-bucket mentality of Virgil Green, who was retained as a free agent to play tight end alongside Denver newcomer Owen Daniels, whose photo appears next to no-nonsense in the NFL dictionary.

After signing Green to a three-year contract Tuesday, Elway said: “He’s the type of guy that we want on the Denver Broncos and a guy that has the mentality of the hard work that it takes to be successful. … We think the sky is the limit for Virgil, and we think he will flourish in what we’re going to offensively now.”

Getting the message, Broncos Country?

Manning will be the quarterback of this team at age 39. Yes, he gives Denver a better shot to succeed in the playoffs than unproven Brock Osweiler.

But this team is already being reshaped to win after Manning is gone.

What the Broncos did during three seasons when they were built to Manning’s specifications was spectacular, especially if you like the flash of NFL records, the shine of a most valuable player award or the oohs and ahs of Star Wars numbers.

If Elway learned anything from the last NFL season, it’s an expensive lesson that will serve him and his franchise well moving in the future:

Money can turn the head of Pro Bowl players and persuade them that relocating to Denver is a very appealing idea.

But money can’t buy a championship.

Denver spent fast and furiously in free agency a year ago. When it stopped raining cash at Dove Valley in 2014, Elway had put together an all-star lineup that included cornerback Aqib Talib, safety T.J. Ward and defensive end DeMarcus Ware. All three newcomers earned invitations to the Pro Bowl as first-year employees of the Broncos.

But none of them got a Super Bowl ring.

The NFL is not fantasy football. There’s more art to building a championship team than scribbling big numbers in bold, black ink on a bonus check.

During each of the past three seasons, when the going got really tough in the playoffs, the Broncos folded. They were too much finesse and too little nasty. With justification, Elway complained his locker room did not have enough players who went down kicking and screaming.

With all due respect to Mr. Elway, who built this Denver team that took a knee at the first sign of adversity or could not handle the white-hot glare and noise at the Super Bowl?

The Broncos are a team whose national image will be again be defined by Manning. As much as Manning will hate it, he will be saluted by television broadcasters and cheered in visiting stadiums throughout this season as a football legend playing the dying minutes of the fourth quarter in his brilliant career.

In important ways as obvious as the emphasis Elway placed on retaining the services of Green, the Broncos are a team in transition. Kubiak was hired to bring a smash-mouth, no-nonsense toughness to a franchise that needs to junk its fancy pants and pull on some steel-toe boots if it wants to kick booty in the playoffs.

For at least another year, Manning will play quarterback for the Broncos.

Elway, however, has called an audible on the type of team he wants to see wearing orange and blue on NFL Sundays.

The farewell to No. 18 has begun in earnest.

In ways that are impossible to ignore, the Manning era is already over.

Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or twitter.com/markkiszla