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).

Mark Sanchez has been linked to a trade ot the St. Louis Rams following the season-ending injury to Sam Bradford, but he reportedly wants to remain with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Sanchez would have a chance to start and play in Brian Schottenheimer's offense if he were to go to the Rams.

Sanchez believes he has a chance to remake his career at the age of 27 with Chip Kelly and has played well in the preseason.

Shaun Hill will enter 2014 as the Rams' starter.

LeSean McCoy left the Philadelphia Eagles' 31-21 preseason win over the Pittsburgh Steelers with a right thumb injury.

X-rays on McCoy's thumb were negative, but he didn't return after his 22-yard touchdown catch gave Philadelphia a 7-0 lead.

Chip Kelly called McCoy's thumb injury "no big deal," although McCoy acknowledged it was sore.

"A helmet hit it," McCoy said, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "It definitely hurts. But there have been times I've been banged up and it turns out fine. We'll see what happens."

Chip Kelly believes that concerns over LeSean McCoy's turf toe are overblown.

"He practiced full yesterday, and he's fine," Kelly said. "It's not as big an issue as I think anybody's made it out to be."

Kelly said the situation was "overblown" for a player missing one practice in August. 

Chip Kelly's offense with the Philadelphia Eagles isn't unique because of specific schemes but how he organizes and implements them.

“I’ve said it since day one: We don’t do anything revolutionary offensively,” Kelly said recently. “We run inside zone, we run outside zone, we run a sweep play, we run a power play. We’ve got a five-step [passing] game, we’ve got a three-step game, we run some screens. We’re not doing anything that’s never been done before in football.”

Kelly is described by Bill Barnwell as a "football hacker", attacking the very logic of defenses by deploying two-on-one, three-on-two and four-on-three advantages.

The Eagles led the NFL in plays of more than 20 yards last season for this very reason.