The New Orleans Saints have continued their trend of finding obscure running backs with this year's edition being Travaris Cadet making the regular season roster.

Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory were similar finds in past seasons.

New Orleans will have Thomas, Cadet, Ivory, Mark Ingram and Darren Sproles on the roster to begin the season.

Cadet was excellent in the preseason and the Saints could deal a running back from a position of strength before the deadline. Ingram and Sproles are virtually untouchable for the Saints.

The New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints have been the smartest spenders in the NFL over the past five seasons, according to a study by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg calculates how much teams spent per win and added bonuses for playoffs wins and championships.

1. New England Patriots
2. Green Bay Packers
3. New York Giants
4. Pittsburgh Steelers
5. New Orleans Saints
6. Baltimore Ravens
7. Indianapolis Colts
8. San Diego Chargers
9. Atlanta Falcons
10. Philadelphia Eagles
11. Arizona Cardinals
12. Tennessee Titans 
13. New York Jets
14. Dallas Cowboys
15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
16. Chicago Bears
17. Jacksonville Jaguars
18. San Francisco 49ers
19. Houston Texans
20. Minnesota Vikings
21. Denver Broncos
22. Cincinnati Bengals
23. Seattle Seahawks
24. Carolina Panthers
25. Kansas City Chiefs
26. Miami Dolphins
27. Buffalo Bills
28. Cleveland Browns
29. Washington Redskins
30. Oakland Raiders
31. Detroit Lions
32. St. Louis Rams 

Roger Goodell is willing to postpone the eight-game suspension of New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis until after Week 1, according to a league source.

New Orleans owner Tom Benson unsuccessfully petitioned Goodell to give Loomis a break and waive one week of the suspension under the difficult circumstances. Instead, Goodell wants to add a week onto the end of the ban to keep it's length.

Because of travel concerns brought on by Hurricane Isaac, the Saints left New Orleans on Monday and headed to Cincinnati for a Tuesday practice at Paul Brown Stadium. They went to Nashville for the Thursday night preseason finale against Tennessee where a whopping 26 players were declared inactive.

Having to stay in hotels away from team headquarters has added to the adversity New Orleans faces entering the Sept. 9 opener against visiting Washington.

The Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers and Baltimore Ravens have the three oldest collections of starters in the NFL. 

The Kansas City Chiefs, Seattle Seahawks and Cincinnati Bengals are the youngest.

Former Vikings head coach Bud Grant had a popular saying that "for every young guy you start, you lose a game."

Pete Carroll worked for Grant early in his coaching career, but has had one of the youngest teams in the NFL during his tenure with the Seahawks.

"I was of that mindset in classic fashion until I had to be in charge of calling all the shots and then it just flipped in me that we don't know where we're going unless we find these guys out," Carroll said. "One of the really exciting things about playing guys early is ... by the middle and to the end of the season, you’ve developed players that fit into your rotations now that add to your depth and also add to the opportunity to not over-play your older guys." 

Below is a full list with the rank in offense/defense in parenthesis.

1. Atlanta Falcons (2/5)
2. San Diego Chargers (7/3)
3. Baltimore Ravens (1/15)
4. Chicago Bears (11/4)
5. Pittsburgh Steelers (25/1)
6. New York Jets (23/2)
7. New York Giants (9/2)
8. Detroit Lions (3/20)
9. New Orleans Saints (6/13)
10. San Francisco 49ers (8/8)
11. Denver Broncos (14/7)
12. Houston Texans (4/23)
13. Oakland Raiders (13/11)
14. Buffalo Bills (12/17)
15. Arizona Cardinals (16/14)
16. Washington Redskins (21/9)
17. Dallas Cowboys (18/16)
18. New England Patriots (5/28)
19. Green Bay Packers (17/21)
20. Jacksonville Jaguars (24/19)
21. Miami Dolphins (26/18)
22. Carolina Panthers (15/26)
23. Indianapolis Colts (28/10)
24. Philadelphia Eagles (19/25)
25. Tennessee Titans (10/31)
26. Minnesota Vikings (30/12)
27. St. Louis Rams (22/27)
28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (20/30)
29. Cleveland Browns (31/24)
30. Cincinnati Bengals (32/22)
31. Seattle Seahawks (29/29)
32. Kansas City Chiefs (27/32) 

Bill Parcells became a candidate to serve as interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints during the suspension to Sean Payton.

Parcells is Payton's mentor.

"I've done this job for a long time," said Parcells on Tuesday. "And it takes a tremendous amount of energy, particularly a person my age, to do these things.

"And at the end of the thought process and the interim time that I had to think about it, I just didn't think I was the guy that really wanted to do it. And I really don't think I was the best guy for the Saints as well."

Keyshawn Johnson said that money was an issue as well, forcing Parcells to smile and not deny it as another possibility.

The Saints practiced in Cincinnati on Tuesday while Hurricane Isaac reached New Orleans.

The team was forced to scramble when Isaac set course for New Orleans. The Saints played a preseason game on Saturday night, then rearranged their plans and spent Sunday and Monday evacuating their families and preparing their homes for the storm.

The Bears have the best uniforms in the NFL, according to Paul Lukas of Uni Watch.

"True, the helmet design is starting to look a tad dated," writes Lukas. "But the striped sleeves, striped socks (now a rarity in the NFL, alas), unique number font, and even the perma-memorial to Papa Bear all score major points, and the Bears may be the only team in the league who look as sharp on the road as they do at home. The cream of the NFL crop."

The Packers, Steelers, Raiders and Eagles round out the top-five.

"Just suit up, baby," writes Lukas about the Raiders. "Silver and black look just as good today as they did when Al Davis came up with them. There's probably some marketer out there who wants the team to dress up like the fans in the Black Hole (and hey, that actually could be fun as a one-off thing), but you don't mess with something this elemental. Also: The Raiders are among the few NFL teams that wisely have declined to adopt the new Nike collar format."

6. Cowboys
7. Bills
8. 49ers
9. Dolphins
19. Buccaneers
11. Chiefs
12. Chargers
13. Jets
14. Colts
15. Patriots
16. Browns
17. Redskins
18. Giants
19. Titans 
20. Texans
21. Rams
22. Saints
23. Ravens
24. Broncos
25. Falcons
26. Lions
27. Seahawks
28. Jaguars
29. Cardinals
30. PAnthers
31. Vikings
32. Bengals 

Aaron Kromer will serve as the head coach of the Saints for the first six games of the season as interim coach Joe Vitt serves his suspension.

"He's certainly a very calm sideline presence on game day, which players love," offensive lineman Zach Strief. "The last thing you want, when you're in the heat of it and you're trying to do as well as you can, is to have someone come and tell you, you didn't.

"I don't need someone to tell me when I got beat ... and (Kromer) is very good at saying, 'What happened? What did he do? What can you do differently?' He talks through things and he allows you to kind of figure it out, and it keeps us a lot more consistent and level headed. I think he'll bring a lot of that to the sideline."

Vitt took on head coaching duties when Sean Payton's season-long suspension began in mid-April.

Mark Ingram underwent offseason surgeries on his toe and to clean up his right knee, but is getting healthier.

“I think he is ahead of schedule (physically)," said Joe Vitt. "I think our trainers have done a great job of monitoring him. I think he has gone as much as three back-to-back practices and then (we) take him out for a day. As we are getting closer to the end of the process, we held him out a little earlier in the week. He put (in) two back-to-back practices this week. I see the quickness and the explosiveness in practice and now I think it is a confidence factor on his part. He is progressing well. I am excited about him.”

Aaron Kromer will assume head coaching duties of the Saints during Joe Vitt's suspension, according to a source.

Vitt will be suspended for six games.

Kromer has been the with the Saints since 2008.