There is a sweet smell wafting inside the Quest Diagnostics Center and in the December air outside where MetLife Stadium sits just a few fields of dreams away, an unfamiliar smell to many of these 2016 Giants.

It is the sweet smell of the playoffs.

As the 9-4 Giants prepare to play their last regular-season home game Sunday against the Lions, and likely their last game of this season at MetLife Stadium, the aroma drives them, every single one of them, the ones who have not experienced the meaningful January games on the road to the Super Bowl, and those who have.

“Oh man, it smells like fresh daisies and flowers, and roses. … It feels good to continue to control our own destiny and have these things in front of us that we want to accomplish,” Victor Cruz told The Post. “We’re just taking it one week at a time, but it’s a good feeling around here.”

Cruz, Eli Manning, Zak DeOssie, Jason Pierre-Paul and Will Beatty were Super Bowl XLVI champions. Jonathan Casillas won a ring with the Patriots, Marshall Newhouse as a rookie with the Packers. Cruz said he knows firsthand that the ones who haven’t been anywhere near the playoffs can smell that unmistakable sweet smell.

“Those guys, you see them walking around, they’re asking about it, you know, ‘Who will we play?’ Or ‘What’s the playoffs like? What’s the energy?’ So they’re asking questions, they can feel it around the corner,” Cruz said, “and it’s just a matter of getting there and getting those feelings under control when that time does come, so they can relax and play football and not think about it.”

Cruz, who still believes he can again be an impact player, is asked what he tells the curious about the playoffs.

“It’s electric,” Cruz said. “I tell them it’s a feeling unlike any other thing you’ll ever feel. But the hardest part is just being calm in that moment. Relaxing your brain and relaxing your mind and being calm in that moment so you can just play football and not think about every moment having to be your best play, or your best this or your best that.”

Justin Pugh, who fully expects to return from his sprained right knee against the Lions, hasn’t sniffed the playoffs as a Giant. He sniffed at his locker Wednesday and said: “It smells good.”

What does it smell like?

“It smells like all the hard work’s starting to pay off, all the extra stuff that we’re putting in is paying off … just trusting the guys around us is paying off, everything that we did since April is paying off, and it’s fun, this is what it’s all about,” Pugh said. “I’m just following the lead of the guys who’ve been here before, following the vets in this room that have won these big games and just follow their lead and gain some experience myself.”

Pugh has talked to Newhouse about the playoffs. What did he tell you?

“It’s faster,” Pugh said. “Every play is like make or break. You never know what play’s going to make the difference. Obviously, that’s said throughout the regular season, but I think everyone even feels it even more come playoff time. And the atmosphere, he said, you just gotta just take it in, embrace it for what it is, but then go out and play.”

Robbie Gould was on the Bears team that lost Super Bowl XLI to Peyton Manning and the Colts.

“Obviously when you’re in the hunt and you’re in the running for the playoffs, every play, every inch, every yard matters,” Gould said. “That’s what you work so hard for in the offseason, in training camp, is to get in these situations, and you just have to enjoy them and step up and answer the bell whenever you get the chance to do it.”

The Super Bowl XLVI Giants were all in. So are the 2016 Giants.

“[In] 2011 we were one of the closest groups that I’ve ever been around,” Cruz said, “and I think this is the second-closest group I’ve ever been around. Because when you hang out off the field, and you’re in each other homes and you’re hanging out outside of here, I think that’s what really builds this team and makes us closer, and it’s really shown on the field and in the locker room.”

It was easy to see Sunday night against the Cowboys what this team means to Giants fans who yearn for a playoff team after four years of watching them.

“We want to give them a show and make sure that they understand why they pay for these tickets to come to our game, why they come to watch us, and pay them back for their continued excellence and why they come see us play rain, sleet, hail, snow,” Cruz said.

Cruz, who would love nothing more than to salsa for the first time at MetLife since the Texans game in Week 3 of the 2014 season.

“That’ll be icing on the cake for me, last regular-season game here at home, and for me to find that end zone again and dance in front of that home crowd, it’ll be a pretty emotional time for me, to say the least,” Cruz said.

There is no guarantee, of course, that Cruz, who has all of one catch for 4 yards receiving in his last two games, will get to salsa in front of these fans next season.

“I’m not thinking about anything regarding next year, I’m just thinking about right now, what this team has in front of us, and taking it from there,” Cruz said.

The Lions?

“We’re treating it as a playoff game,” Landon Collins said.

No ands or buts. Only sniffs.