New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is still in "Tier 1" among NFL QBs -- but barely.

That was the consensus among 35 coaches, general managers and personnel executives polled by ESPN NFL Insider Mike Sando for this year’s installment of the "Quarterback Tiers" rankings (which require Insider access).

Drew Brees tied for the NFL lead with 4,952 passing yards last season, but committed 20 turnovers. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Brees slipped from a tie for first place in 2014 to sixth place in 2015, with an average grade of 1.49, almost exactly halfway between Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Based on some of the anonymous quotes shared by Sando, that’s exactly how many of the evaluators saw Brees hovering in limbo between those two tiers after his uneven performance last season.

One head coach actually changed his grade from a 1 to a 2 in the midst of talking about Brees:

"Physically, he is a 2, but I think you have to give him a 1 because he can carry a team," the coach said at first. "He may dip into the 2s this year. When guys get older and start getting hit, especially guys with vision problems, they start playing a lot faster, almost too fast, and panic shows up. I saw some of that in Drew last season. ...

"I'll tell you what," the coach ultimately said, "give him a 2, because I think he has just kind of come out of the 1 category."

Other evaluators had a tough time deciding whether Brees is starting to show signs of decline at age 36 or if his struggles last season were the result of a poor supporting cast.

Brees still tied for the NFL lead with 4,952 passing yards and ranked second with a 69.2 completion percentage. But he committed 20 turnovers -- some of them in big moments -- while playing from behind too often and playing behind inconsistent pass protection.

In other words, Brees was under pressure too often last season, but he also didn’t deliver enough in those pressure-packed moments.

So the 1.49 grade is fitting. But if forced to choose between 1 and 2, I would still give Brees a Tier 1 ranking. I think he’ll be helped by the Saints’ improvements on defense and in the interior offensive line this coming season.

I don’t think Brees is in the same peak form he reached in 2009 and 2011. But I think he was pretty much the same quarterback in 2013 (when the Saints went 11-5 because of a stronger defense) and 2014 (when they went 7-9).