NFL Survivor Pool Picks

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 6
by Trevor Whenham - 10/10/2017

The Philadelphia Eagles did everything we could have hoped last week. They were the clear and obvious pick for survivor pool action in Week 5, and they beat Arizona almost laughably easily. If only it were so easy every week. We are at the time of the season in survivor pools when things really get interesting. For people who are paying attention and understand how these pools work, getting to this point is manageable most years unless something crazy happens. But with each passing week the competition gets tougher, the pool of good teams gets smaller, and our job gets more difficult.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 5
by Matt Severance - 10/4/2017

I am out of my primary Survivor Pool the earliest in six years thanks to the freaking Atlanta Falcons and the fact they can't gain one stinking yard on the Buffalo Bills. In this past Sunday's game at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta took possession of the ball at its own 25 with about three minutes left and after another monster field goal from Stephen Hauschka had given Buffalo a 23-17 lead. I was still feeling pretty confident.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 5
by Trevor Whenham - 10/2/2017

I don't know about your survivor pools, but in mine the Falcons were the cause of quite a massacre. An unbeaten team with Super Bowl-caliber talent at home in a shiny new stadium against an eternally underwhelming team. It's the kind of game that Atlanta should win in their sleep. But of course Buffalo won it to move into sole possession of first place in the AFC East - where everyone the planet obviously knew they would be at this point in the season.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 4
by Matt Severance - 9/27/2017

In Week 3, eight games were decided by six points or fewer, including two overtime contests. All eight of those games were decided in the final two minutes or OT. Just two teams - Atlanta and Kansas City - remain undefeated. Usually, 3-0 teams make the playoffs, but just one team last season to start 3-0 - New England - advanced to the postseason.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 4
by Trevor Whenham - 9/25/2017

Well, that week of NFL Survivor Pools action was far more stressful than it should have been. Green Bay was the clear best pick last week against Cincinnati, yet somehow the Packers didn't rediscover the mojo they lost in Atlanta, and the Bengals looked more competent than they have in most of a year. The Packers needed overtime, and I needed a drink or two to get through that mess. And New England, which was the second-best choice, didn't make winning look any easier than Green Bay did.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 2
by Matt Severance - 9/19/2017

Hello, devoted minions. I owe you an apology and an explanation. First off, I have been doing these Survivor Pool stories for several years here at Doc's, and I believe last week was the first I missed. The reason? Somehow a major hurricane named Irma skirted around the bottom of Florida, took a right turn and slammed into my location. As I write this, I still have no power at my home. (Don't even get me started on what I'd like to do to Florida Power & Light right now.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 3
by Trevor Whenham - 9/19/2017

I am playing in only two survivor pools this year - a far cry from my normal number. In both of them about 40 percent of players have been eliminated through two weeks. That's a fairly good indicator that there are a lot of stupid people on this planet. I say this will all the respect it deserves - there is absolutely no excuse for being out at this point. There has been an incredibly easy, glaringly obvious pick each week. All you have had to do is pick them - Pittsburgh and Oakland in that order - and that's it.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 2
by Trevor Whenham - 9/11/2017

The first week of Survivor Pool action was incredibly easy and straightforward if you didn't outsmart yourself. Pittsburgh was the clear, obvious and only choice playing against Cleveland, and they took care of business. People who picked the Bills against the Jets did fine, too. As did those who went with the Falcons over the Bears.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 1
by Matt Severance - 9/6/2017

Is it me, or does it feel like this will be an easy season to compete in a Survivor Pool? Obviously, there are always bad teams in the NFL. But in 2017, the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers appear in full tank mode (my Bears will stink again, too, but not quite in Jets/Browns/Niners category). We all know there's "no crying in baseball," but Commissioner Roger Goodell says there's "no tanking in football," either. He's 100 percent wrong.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 1
by Trevor Whenham - 9/4/2017

The best way to add some fun, challenge, and chance for profit to a football season is through betting on sides and totals - pure and straightforward. A close second, though, is through survivor pools. These pools, which require you to pick just one team that is going to win each week, are deceptively difficult, strategically compelling, and are a much more of a real world application, for my tastes anyway, than fantasy football. Our goal this week, and every week for the next few months, is to break down the games to find the best and most compelling survivor pools plays and to help you avoid the plays that don't make a lot of sense.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 17
by Matt Severance - 12/28/2016

Well here we are, the final week of the NFL's regular season. Here's hoping you are still kicking in your Survivor Pool competitions or have won it already. I am alive in one of my three, which perhaps makes up for losing in the semifinals of both fantasy football leagues (freaking Doug Martin and Melvin Gordon). And I need a really good week in my main Confidence Pool to make up the 20 points I'm behind the season leader. Huh, I can't figure out why my wife complains I'm not all that attentive to her needs during football season. Guess I'm a little preoccupied. Love you honey, we'll do something after March Madness!

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 17
by Trevor Whenham - 12/28/2016

And so it draws to a close - another regular season of NFL action. From a Survivor Pools perspective it has mostly been a successful one. Things were tough for the first three weeks or so, but since then we have mostly seen outcomes that have made sense - the best teams have, for the most part, beaten the worst team when they have met up. We have a few teams to thank this year - squads like the Browns, Bears, Niners and Rams were all both really bad and pleasingly consistent.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 16
by Matt Severance - 12/21/2016

I say this every year in Week 16 but will again: does your league allow you to simply split the pool at this point if it's just you and one or two other competitors going in the Survivor Pool? I generally lean toward taking the sure money over the uncertainty of nothing. That said, I also look at what teams I have remaining and if I feel very confident about Weeks 16 & 17 then I'll take my chances. My only caveat would be that I hate Survivor Pools in Week 17 because half the teams are thinking about offseason golf plans.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 16
by Trevor Whenham - 12/20/2016

We are in the second-to-last week of the long NFL season. By now you are almost certainly no longer alive in your Survivor Pool - or if you are you are the winner. Unless you are in a pool that was a second, third, fourth or fifth chance - but you don't need to admit that. Even though thoughts of Survivor Pools aren't as urgent as they were earlier in the season, it's still worthwhile looking at the schedule of games from a Survivor Pool perspective.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 15
by Matt Severance - 12/14/2016

There have been more than a few years that I've waited to Christmas shop until I potentially won my Survivor Pool and had those extra dollars lying around. Of course I also used to go to malls to shop and I'm honestly not even sure those still exist? If you can't get it online and delivered in two days, it might as well be fictional in my mind.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 15
by Trevor Whenham - 12/12/2016

Again last week the games that stood out as Survivor Pool plays turned out as expected. This year has turned into a gift for aficionados of these pools with plenty of bad teams that are incapable of playing well and which haven't even been throwing in an upset or two along the way. Thanks to the generosity of the Rams, Niners and Bears - though sadly not the Browns this time as we will discuss - the smooth sailing should continue through Week 15. Here's how I see the week playing out from a Survivor Pool perspective:

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 14
by Matt Severance - 12/7/2016

I'm starting to feel like Leonard in the terrific Christopher Nolan movie "Memento." In that I see things in the NFL that I must have just forgotten. Like, how are the Detroit Lions on pace to win their division? What year is this? They haven't done that since 1993. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are good? Huh? The Oakland Raiders are too? Is this the 2002 NFL season?

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 14
by Trevor Whenham - 12/6/2016

We've settled into a comfortable pattern the last few weeks in terms of Survivor Pools. There have been enough games out there that are straightforward that picks are out there to be found, and the games we have picked have mostly turned out as expected. Surprises and chaos are the enemies of Survivor Pool players, and for the most part both have been absent at the top end of games over the last few weeks.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 13
by Matt Severance - 11/30/2016

Not sure I can remember a week around the NFL like Week 12. Favorites crushed it, winning 14 of the 16 games. Thus there were incredibly high scores in my Confidence Pool -- hey, I want to brag because I won it -- with the only favorites losing being Seattle in Tampa Bay and Philadelphia at home to Green Bay. Just so happens I had the Bucs and Packers; my lone miss was Houston over San Diego.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 13
by Trevor Whenham - 11/29/2016

I don't want to overstate things, but I am pretty sure that there has never been an easier Week 12 in the history of the NFL for Survivor Pool enthusiasts than the one we were just lucky enough to experience. There were four games that jumped out as so obvious they were almost embarrassing, and all four turned out just like they were supposed to. No drama. No stress. If it was always this easy to pick winners - any week of the season - then no one would play Survivor Pools because there would be no challenge.