NFL power rankings: Eagles lead big risers heading into Week 17

Folks, the Eagles are (kind of) for real.

After their fifth win in six games and sixth in eight, the Birds are in the driver's seat for a wild card spot (the last one), and they're also one of the hottest (sleeper) teams in football.

Nick Sirianni has the offense playing complementary football (other than in Sunday's first half), and the defense is forcing turnovers and shutting (admittedly bad) offenses down.

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There are a lot of qualifiers because they're still just 8-7 and they've just beat up a bunch of bad teams, but this much is clear: the Eagles are actually good now.

So let's scour seven different national outlets to find out what they're saying about the Birds after they climbed back above .500 for the first time since Week 1:

ESPN

Last week: 23

NFL

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This week: 13 (+10)

"The Eagles are tied with the Cowboys for most defensive touchdowns in the NFL at five. That's mostly because of Slay, who has returned two fumbles for touchdowns and also has a pick-six on the season. Slay, who was named to his fourth Pro Bowl last week, has three interceptions, nine passes defensed and five tackles for loss while holding opposing quarterbacks to a rating of 77.2 when throwing in his direction. His high level of play has boosted a defense that has yielded the second-fewest receptions of 20-plus yards in the NFL (30) -- behind only the Buffalo Bills -- and ranks ninth against the pass (215.6 yards per game)."

NFL.com

Last week: 19

This week: 15 (+4)

"The boo birds were out in full force as the Eagles bumbled their way through an ugly first-half performance against the Giants. Luckily for Nick Sirianni's team, its divisional rivals from New Jersey are terrible, a reality that allowed the Eagles to recover from a slow start. Jalen Hurts engineered three touchdown drives in the second half, and the Philly defense had no problem shutting down an inept New York attack fronted by overmatched first-time starter Jake Fromm and, later, eternal journeyman Mike Glennon. Hurts was a non-factor in the running game for the second straight week -- a sign his injured ankle still isn't close to 100 percent."

CBS Sports

Last week: 21

This week: 16 (+5)

"Here come the Eagles. They have a real chance to be a playoff team. Win two and they are in, which would be a heck of a story."

Sporting News

Last week: 19

This week: 15 (+5)

"The Eagles control their playoff fate now as they've figured things out with Nick Sirianni in terms of getting the best out of Jalen Hurts. The defense has been the backbone all season."

Pro Football Network

Last week: 20

This week: 15 (+5)

"It took the Eagles offense a while to assert their dominance, but they did just that in the second half. Admittedly, the Giants are a dumpster fire, but the Eagles still needed to go out and get the job done scoring points – because realistically, New York wasn’t going to.

"Philadelphia’s offensive line might be the best in football. They’re dominant running the ball. But today was more about the defense, or maybe more accurately, the ineptitude of the Giants offense without Daniel Jones.

"Philly’s real test will be the next two weeks as they try to sweep Washington and make the playoffs off the back of five straight wins if they can beat Dallas in Week 18."

Bleacher Report

Last week: 19

This week: 14 (+5)

"Philadelphia's Week 16 win over the New York Giants sums up why it's hard to peg the team in 2021.

"In the first half of the game, the Eagles looked mediocre at best, especially on offense, But whatever head coach Nick Sirianni said at halftime worked. After intermission, the Eagles got the ground game that has been the team's signature in recent weeks going, while the defense completely shut down New York. A 3-3 contest at the break was a rout when the game ended, and at 8-7, the Eagles have worked their way inside the NFC playoff bracket. [...]"

Sports Illustrated

Last week: 16

This week: 16 (+0)

"The Eagles have already exceeded my preseason expectations for them, and credit Nick Sirianni’s well-publicized pivot to the run game that coincided with the Eagles’ turning their season around. The path is clear for Philly to grab a wild card spot, and if it shakes out that way I think the Eagles can just be happy to be there."

Bang! That's a season-best average ranking of 14.85! The Eagles are now a Top 15 team.

This feels like the week that the entire power rankings industrial complex woke up and realized (or begrudgingly admitted) that the Eagles are good now. Last week's rankings were embarrassingly low, so we saw a bunch of big jumps this week - including a dang 10-spot from ESPN.

Crazy.

I'll be tracking the Eagles' average power rankings across these seven outlets all season long at the bottom of these posts.