NFL power rankings: Giants stay put after bye week

It’s that time of the week: NFL Power Rankings. The (3-6) New York Giants took a week off and look toward a week 11 date on Monday Night Football at the (6-3) Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Giants are coming off a 23-16 home win over the Raiders while the Bucs lost on Sunday to the Washington Football Team.

In fact, all three of New York’s NFC East foes won on Sunday, keeping the Giants in last place in its division (but tied with Washington at 3-6). The Giants lost both of their divisional games this year, to Dallas and Washington.

Aggregating several rankings from around the Internet, the Giants come out to an average ranking of No. 26 (last week: No. 25) in the 32-team NFL. Our figure averages all the rankings below except for DraftKings, which bases its ranking on point spread differential.

Let’s check out what outlets around the league are saying about the Giants after Week 10:

NFL.com: No. 24 (was 22)

The Giants spent their bye week just trying to get healthy. Injuries have been the story with this team, with critical players on the offense disappearing for large swaths of the season. Running back Saquon Barkley and wide receivers Sterling Shepard, Kenny Golladay and Darius Slayton have each been sidelined for three games or more. Electric rookie wideout Kadarius Toney missed two games. The injury avalanche has muddled the evaluation process of third-year QB Daniel Jones while putting handcuffs on offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who doesn’t need any additional impediments to the job. If any team deserves some “injury luck” in the second half, it’s the G-Men.

NBC Sports: No. 28 (was 26)

The Giants exit their bye week to face a pissed-off Bucs team that just face-planted against Taylor Heinicke. Not how Joe Judge drew it up.

CBS Sports: No. 24 (was 24)

They come off their bye with tough Monday night road game against the Bucs on the road. At least they are getting some guys back from injury.

ESPN: No. 27 (was 26)

Most important remaining game: Monday at Buccaneers

If the Giants, currently 1.5 games back of the No. 7 spot, want to even pretend to be in the playoff picture, they’re going to have to pull off a massive upset. Yes, it’s unlikely. They are on the road against the defending champs opening as 11.5-point underdogs, per Caesars Sportsbook. Maybe getting healthier off the bye week helps? — Jordan Raanan

ESPN Football Power Index: No. 25 (-2.8) (was 24)

Sporting News: No. 27 (was 25)

The Giants also had a bye looking to come out with a cleaner bill of health overall, led by Saquon Barkley and the receiving corps. Daniel Jones needs to finish strong to secure his position as franchise passer for 2022.

Pro Football Network: No. 25 (was 25)

The Giants were outplayed in this game, but it didn’t matter. Daniel Jones threw for 110 yards. They went 0-for-2 in the red zone offensively. But the defense held up strong against a very potent Raiders offense, holding them to just 1 TD and 3 FGs.

But even as the Giants struggled to get to or score inside the red zone, the Raiders also refused to capitalize inside the 20-yard line, going just 1-of-6. New York safety Xavier McKinney also managed to intercept two Derek Carr passes, one of which went for a touchdown.

The Giants’ offensive line is still awful, but if their defense can be opportunistic and they can take care of the football, they can keep games close enough to give them a chance down the stretch.

Yahoo! Sports: No. 27 (was 26)

Saquon Barkley returned to practice on Monday and seems set to play for the first time since injuring his ankle on Oct. 10. At this point, Barkley’s ability to stay healthy for half of a season is a question the Giants have to answer.

New York Post: No. 23 (was 23)

Winners of two of their last three, the Giants have wins over the current No. 6 and No. 7 seeds in the NFC playoffs (Saints and Panthers, respectively). They will draw an angry Tom Brady on “Monday Night Football,” but then the schedule softens, including a slew of offenses that can be contained in the Giants’ defense-first winning formula.

Sports Illustrated: No. 27 (was 24)

The Giants hope to have both running back Saquon Barkley and left tackle Andrew Thomas back post-bye week. But, the team has a lot of work to do in the second half of the year in order to meet owner John Mara’s preseason standard of “making progress” and “moving in the right direction.”

DraftKings: No. 14 (was 14)

DraftKings has moved from subjective assessments to using spread differential. Point differential is a helpful tool for figuring out the best and worst teams. However, point spread can offer a little more context to how good or bad teams might be. We see a lot of the usual suspects up top, with Arizona and Tennessee leading the way.

You can see all of the lines on upcoming Giants games at DraftKings Sportsbook.