Bill Belichick is ranked as the best coach in the NFL, according to a poll of 30 league insiders.

Pete Carroll and Sean Payton are ranked second and third and are also in their first tier.

"The most important thing to me is the ability to control the offense, the defense and the special teams," a GM said in describing the ideal coach. "You can change and you can coach multiple things and you have the ability to teach almost every position group. Then you can lose any coach you want and replace from within because the head coach is the talent. Belichick is the ultimate model of that."

Belichick commmanded a 1 vote on 28 of 30 ballots.

In Tier 2 are Andy Reid at No. 4, Tom Coughlin at No. 5, Mike McCarthy and Mike Tomlin at No. 6, Jim Harbaugh at No. 8, John Harbaugh at No. 9, John Fox at No. 10 , Jeff Fisher at No. 11, Chip Kelly at No. 12, Bruce Arians at No. 13, Lovie Smith at No. 14 and Mavin Lewis at No. 15.

Tier 3 is led by Chuck Pagano At No. 16, followed by Rex Ryan (17), Mike Smith (18), Gus Bradley (19), Ken Whisenhunt (20), Mike McCoy (20), Marc Trestman (22) and Ron Rivera (23).

Tier 4 features Mike Zimmer (24), Jay Gruden (25), Bill O'Brien (26), Jim Caldwell (27), Doug Marrone (28), Joe Philbin (29), Jason Garrett (30), Mike Pettine (31) and Bruce Allen (32).

Drew Brees was held out of the New Orleans Saints' scrimmage on Saturday with a strained left oblique.

Brees will be evaluated over the next few days and is considered day-to-day.

Luke McCown currently is Brees' primary backup at quarterback.