"Laurence Maroney was in the Broncos' locker room Thursday, he was in the training room and he was in the meeting room.

Where he was not: on the field. How all of this is going to work out for the Broncos is yet to be determined, mainly because of Maroney's thigh injury.

Coach Josh McDaniels said "when he's ready to roll, we'll put him out there."

Still, it is intriguing to see Maroney with the Broncos, given how close he was to being the Broncos' first-round pick in 2006. Had the Broncos not been able to trade their way up in the first round — with St. Louis — to get the 11th pick overall to take quarterback Jay Cutler, Maroney would have almost certainly been their pick later in the round.

Former coach Mike Shanahan never took a running back in the first round of any draft during his time in Denver, always believing he could get impact players at the position without using a premium pick. And then the Broncos found Terrell Davis, Clinton Portis, Mike Anderson, Tatum Bell and on and on.

But Shanahan, as well as former Broncos running backs coach Bobby Turner, thought Maroney could be a difference maker — Shanahan went as far as to say "we thought he had everything."

So, what's happened? Maroney hasn't rushed for 900 yards in a season and hasn't finished a single season without an injury. And the team that did take him in the first round of the '06 draft — the Patriots — has now sent him on his way. He leaves behind a New England backfield that has three 30-year-old running backs instead of him.

Having seen a few games of Maroney's in the past, he didn't always look committed to pressing the issue when he took the handoff as a pro — there was some hesitancy at times. Once he made up his mind, he tried to run hard."