"Kyle Orton quickly ended the biggest offseason story line surrounding the Broncos - the three-man quarterback competition - by early August, but coach Josh McDaniels said Friday that the two other quarterbacks, Tim Tebow and Brady Quinn, remain "competitive" for the backup job.

Tebow has been the active No. 2 in 10 of the Broncos' 11 games because the team has designed specialty packages to take advantage of his dual-threat running and passing skills. Tebow scored two touchdowns, one rushing, one passing, in the Broncos' first game against the Kansas City Chiefs three weeks ago.

McDaniels said Tebow and Quinn, who arrived in Denver in March in a trade with the Cleveland Browns involving running back Peyton Hillis, split the work running the scout team throughout the week in practice.

"I don't think there's a huge gap," McDaniels said. "I think that they're close, and the fact that Tim can help us in some way, shape or form - and needs to be No. 2 to do that - really plays a factor into that as well. I think they've both continued to work extremely hard all year."

Ball passes Maroney.

The Broncos gave up a fourth- round pick in the 2011 draft to get running back Laurence Maroney from the New England Patriots in September.

But Maroney, a former first-round draft pick, has been a healthy scratch the past three games and dressed, but didn't play, in the two games before that.

Maroney's slide down the depth chart is more because of the value of Lance Ball than a failure on Maroney's part, McDaniels said.

Ball, signed off the practice squad three weeks ago, has become Knowshon Moreno's backup on first- and second- downs and also plays on special teams.

"Lance has just done a nice job with his opportunities," McDaniels said."