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 

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) 

Peyton Manning signed a five-year, $96 million deal with the Broncos in March, but the future Hall of Fame quarterback is treating his deal as a one-year pact.

Manning will earn $18 million this season, but will need to pass a physical in March 2013 to trigger the guarantees on the remaining $40 million in guaranteed money.

"End of the day, my contract (with the Broncos) really is only a one-year contract," Manning told the Denver Post. "That is the fact of the matter, so I think you do play with a sense of urgency."

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 

Clinton Portis announced his retirement Thursday, as he spoke uninterrupted for some 25 minutes about his life and nine-year NFL career with the Broncos and Redskins, according to an ESPN.com report.

The 30-year-old Portis last played for the Redskins in 2010, and his announcement was timed to coincide with his induction into a list of the franchise's all-time greats.

Peyton Manning has been largely impressive during his first two preseason games with the Brocnos.

But there is some concern that Manning has issues throwing to the right.

ESPN.com's John Clayton has tracked Manning this summer and believes that he has trouble throwing more than 10 yards to the right side. 

Manning hasn't had any issues throwing to the left.

The Broncos have six players in ESPN's Top-200, led by Peyton Manning at No. 16.

Von Miller (32), Ryan Clady (64), Champ Bailey (90), Elvis Dumervil (115) and D.J. Williams (185) are Denver's other representatives. 

In a recent interview, Eli Manning talked about his stature in the NFL in relation to his brother Peyton, who now plays for the Broncos. "I was always competitive, but I've never tried to compete with Peyton. I never tried to say I need to be better than him," the Giants quarterback told Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports. "I've accepted at times that I wasn't maybe as good as him because he was the No. 1 high school player in the country. In college, he was going to be the first pick in the draft, so if I tried to go out there and be the same person and be better than him or the same person as him, I'm going to drive myself crazy. I'm going to go out and be the best quarterback I can be and get the most out of my potential. If that's better than him, great. If it's not, so be it." The younger Manning has won two Super Bowls, while Peyton has a single championship.

Playing for the first time in 19 months, Peyton Manning hopes to build on his preseason debut with the Broncos. "It felt good to get out there," Manning said. "We can build on this." The quarterback wasn't hit by a Chicago defense that held out some of its playmakers. After completing 4 of 7 passes for 44 yards, Manning watched the rest of Denver's 31-3 win from the sideline. He was picked off near the end zone on his final throw of the game.