NFL power rankings, Week 16: New York Giants stay at No. 7

The New York Giants hold steady at No. 7 in the aggregated NFL power rankings for Week 16. That is exactly where they were a week ago in our rankings, which combine the average placement of the 10 sites below.

Most interesting to me is the commetary, with some saying they believe in the Giants as contenders and others saying they do not. Time will tell.

SB Nation (No. 7) | LW: 7

ESPN (No. 8) | LW: 5

Since Week 6, Odell Beckham Jr. leads the NFL in receiving yards (814) and receiving touchdowns (nine). The Giants are 8-1 in that span. Coincidence? Probably not. Beckham looks to stay hot at Philadelphia on Thursday night.

NFL.com (No. 7) | LW: 8

Nobody's buying into the Giants. The Giants keep winning. Improving to 10-4 with a 17-6 win over Detroit, Big Blue got extremely close to locking up a wild-card spot. There is a decent chance that only one other non-division winner will reach double-digit wins in the NFC. The Lions could lose out. The Bucs might not hit the 10 spot, either. Of course, another win and the G-Men simply clinch a spot. New York can do that this week in Philadelphia -- though the Linc has been a house of turds for Eli Manning and the offense in recent years. They've scored all of one touchdown since 2013 in Philly. Think it'll go down differently this time around.

FOX Sports (No. 8) | LW: 8

The Giants rarely turn in dominant performances offensively, but the defense is absolutely Super Bowl-caliber. It forces turnovers, makes quarterbacks uncomfortable and makes plays when needed most. Eli Manning and the offense still need to make drastic improvements, but the defense might just be good enough to carry New York.

Pro Football Focus (No. 7) | LW: NA

Yahoo! Sports (No. 8) | LW: 9

Everyone seems to be buying into the Giants as a Super Bowl sleeper because of things that happened in 2007 and 2011 but that doesn’t matter in 2016. The defense, however, is playing well. They’ll have to get the offense going though before I buy in.

CBS Sports (No. 6) | LW: 8

The play of their defense makes them a dangerous team come playoff time. They need to get the offense back on track.

Bleacher Report/Simms (No. 4) | LW: 6

Play excellent defense.

And wait for Odell Beckham Jr. to astound.

New York does two things well as a team. But that might be enough to take this group all the way to Houston in February.

Big Blue has now won 10 games and should nail down a wild-card spot. Other playoff teams should look at what the G-Men did to Matthew Stafford and tremble; Detroit’s quarterback faced a collapsing pocket, and his receivers had no room to run after the catch.

Of course, Beckham factors into that equation too. You’ll see his latest one-handed touchdown about 1,000 times from now until his team opens up Week 16.

USA Today (No. 6) | LW: 7

You may dislike Odell Beckham's antics, but he produces (first player with at least 80 catches and 1,000 yards in each of first three seasons).

Washington Post (No. 6) | LW: 4

The defense was terrific again Sunday against the Lions, even with the injuries to key players beginning to pile up. DE Jason Pierre-Paul remains sidelined after his surgery to repair a core muscle injury, and CB Janoris Jenkins hurt his back Sunday. The Giants limited the Cowboys and Lions to a total of 13 points over the past two games. Now it’s a quick turnaround for Thursday night’s game at Philadelphia.