NFL power rankings: National media eviscerates Judge, Giants again

It’s that time of the week: NFL Power Rankings. The (4-11) New York Giants lost their fourth straight game on Sunday after falling to the Philadelphia Eagles 34-10.

The media bashing is in full effect now, with NFL.com noting that the Giants “have reached the stage of a bad season when hope ceases to exist.” We thought we might have somewhat of a spark by starting Jake Fromm, but he was pulled in the third quarter after throwing for just 25 yards and an interception.

Among mean things said about the Giants this week include: “pathetic,” “dreadful,” “a mess”.

It will be interesting to see if New York surprises us with a win over their final two games against the below-average Chicago Bears and Washington Football Team. At this stage I imagine most fans aren’t betting on it.

Aggregating several rankings from around the Internet, the Giants come out to an average ranking of No. 30 (last week: No. 28) 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 16:

NFL.com: No. 31 (was 30)

The Giants have reached the stage of a bad season when hope ceases to exist. Losing becomes inevitable — simply avoiding embarrassment becomes the primary goal. A sleepy Eagles team allowed New York to hang around for two quarters on Sunday, but Philly pulled away with ease to tag Big Blue with its fourth consecutive loss. Jake Fromm’s NFL starting debut went so poorly — 6-of-17 passing for 25 yards and an interception — that Joe Judge felt compelled to pull the second-year pro in favor of Mike Glennon in the third quarter. There has been entirely too much Mike Glennon on tri-state area televisions this year.

NBC Sports: No. 31 (was 28)

Joe Judge opened his press conference after a 34-10 loss by commending his special teams for the field position they gave the team. Explain to me again why he deserves another season. The Giants are pathetic.

CBS Sports: No. 30 (was 30)

No matter who plays quarterback, this offense is dreadful. It sounds like Joe Judge is coming back, though.

ESPN: No. 29 (was 27)

Non-QB MVP: K Graham Gano

Man, it is bad when your kicker is the only real option for team MVP. But it’s reality, as Gano has accounted for 40% of the team’s points this season and has made 88% of his field goal attempts. This includes 7 of 10 kicks from 50-plus yards. Safety Logan Ryan was an option, but he missed two games after testing positive for COVID-19, and defensive end Leonard Williams (5.5 sacks) has been too inconsistent. — Jordan Raanan

Sporting News: No. 30 (was 28)

The Giants have become an injury-riddled mess and although they have had some big moments on defense, their offense going into the complete tank with a lot of injuries and no Daniel Jones has dragged the whole team down.

Pro Football Network: No. 28 (was 27)

The Giants were once again without Daniel Jones, and they decided to give Jake Fromm the nod over Mike Glennon to see what they had in the young quarterback that started over Justin Fields at Georgia.

It turns out they’re still looking for a backup QB heading into 2022 because Fromm had a rough go of it. He’s simply too physically limited to play in a starting capacity at the NFL level.

Patrick Graham and the defense held out for as long as they could, but Philadelphia’s physicality was the difference.

Yahoo! Sports: No. 31 (was 28)

Saquon Barkley had 28 yards on 16 touches against the Eagles, then reporters noted he didn’t speak to the media after the game or on Monday. The former matters way more than the latter. It has been a long time since we’ve seen Barkley look like a star.

New York Post: No. 30 (was 26)

How about Daniel Jones as a dark-horse MVP candidate? It’s a joke. Sort of. Watching Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm lead scoreless drives makes you appreciate whatever little Jones was able to accomplish with this blocking. In the last six games, the Giants have scored six total touchdowns, including three after falling behind by 30 points. All the offensive playmakers are having career-worst (or close to it) seasons.

Sports Illustrated: No. 30 (was 27)

If I was Gary Gramling, I would be a coward and say the Jets and Giants are tied. But I’m not, so I’ll declare the Giants are the slightly better New York team, I guess. (It’s fine, Gary will never see this.)

DraftKings: No. 21 (was 20)

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.

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