NFL Power Rankings, Week 16: Cleveland stays put

The Browns aren't inspiring a lot of passion around the league. Even in a relatively close loss to the surging Redskins, most power rankers didn't take much notice of Cleveland. On the four rankings, three kept the Browns right in the high 20s. Only SB Nation moved the Browns into the top two-thirds in the league, and that was a late bump after the win over Kansas City.

Cleveland took a big jump in SB Nation's Week 16 rankings, from 27 to 18, but that was almost entirely on the basis that the site had the Browns too low in the standings last week. Elsewhere, there was little movement for Cleveland. CBS dropped the team three places to 24th, Yahoo moved them up one spot from 23rd to 22nd, and ESPN docked them two places from 20th to 22nd.

In the rest of the AFC North, the Bengals are fast climbing the rankings as they make a late push for the division title. SB Nation, Yahoo and ESPN have Cincinnati 13th overall. CBS puts the Bengals all the way at the eighth spot, highest of any AFC North team. The Ravens are narrowly in or out of the top 10, and the Steelers took a hit in all four charts.

Overall, New England lost its first-place spot in all four rankings. SB Nation and CBS put Denver as No. 1 after its throttling of Baltimore. Yahoo and ESPN rewarded San Francisco for its narrow win over New England by moving the 49ers up to first.