The Chicago Bears have continued to be aggressive in upgrading their special teams unit.

In the offseason, the Bears signed Eric Weems to help Devin Hester with returns.

Chicago also kept Jeremy Jones and Patrick Trahan with an eye on special teams.

The Bears assume their offense will be improved, which has caused them to place a greater significance on field position.

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 Denver Broncos and John Elway are encouraged by the progress by Knowshon Moreno in returning from an ACL injury he suffered last November.

“He’s carrying more weight, and he’s come back strong,” Elway said Friday.

Moreno will be one of four running backs on the Broncos' roster to begin the season, joining Willis McGahee, Ronnie Hillman and Lance Ball.

“When you look at the full package, we were excited about where Knowshon was, and how he ran the ball and continued to get better throughout camp,” Elway said.

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 

John Skelton will start at quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1, according to a source.

Skelton finished the 2011 season strong and won the Kickoff Week slot from Kevin Kolb.

Orlando Scandrick was signed in 2011 by the Dallas Cowboys on a five-year, $27 million contract extension.

But Scandrick has become the forgotten cornerback as the Cowboys signed Brandon Carr to a five-year, $50.1 million deal and the moved up to draft Morris Claiborne sixth overall.

Scandrick was a sixth round pick and therefore on a cheap salary during his initial few years.

"If you don't think that they got their money's worth. I mean, hey," said Scandrick. "It would have been hard to imagine if I would have walked out the door in March who would have been playing right now. Who would have been playing right now?"

Opponents completed 68.5 percent of their passes and averaged 9.3 yards per attempt when targeting Scandrick, according to STATS, Inc.

Mike Jenkins is the wild card at cornerback for the Cowboys as he returns from offseason shoulder surgery. Jenkins was a first round pick by Dallas in 2008.

The Oakland Raiders lost to the Seattle Seahawks by a final score of 21-3. The starting offense and defense played very briefly.

The loss demonstrated the lack of depth on the Raiders as they remake the roster under new general manager Reggie McKenzie.

“It tells you where we are from a depth standpoint,’’ new head coach Bruce Allen said. “We hold everybody to the same standard and we all have a job to do. So we all have to do a better job.’’

The San Diego Chargers disappointingly missed the 2011 NFL Playoffs.

For a team that needed change, general manager A.J. Smith decided to add more than a dozen veteran free agents.

The Chargers have never been big spenders in free agency during Smith's tenure.

Philip Rivers and Eric Weddle both said that the new additions have been a welcome change.

Jon Baldwin has had an excellent training camp for the Kansas City Chiefs and is a popular pick to become a breakout star at wide receiver in his second season.

Baldwin also benefitted from additional attention with Dwayne Bowe holding out.

The Oakland Raiders will have a cultural change defensively this season under new head coach Dennis Allen and defensive coordinator Jason Tarver.

Al Davis served as the team's de facto coordinator until his passing last October.

The players are excited about the defense being opened up with multiple sets.