NFL Survivor Pool Picks

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 2
by Matt Severance - 9/14/2016

If you followed my advice last week and steered clear of Week 1's biggest favorite, Seattle at home against Miami, how excited were you that the Dolphins were leading 10-6 with under a minute left in the Pacific Northwest? Or if you watched the game, that analyst Dan Fouts said the winning 6-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin (my fantasy team thanks you) was going to come back because of offensive pass interference?

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 2
by Trevor Whenham - 9/14/2016

It was a tense week of Survivor Pool action for me last week. Actually, it wasn't that tense because I had given up on most of my pools by about five minutes into the game. I was confident that Kansas City over San Diego was the best choice of the week, and that it wasn't even close. Unfortunately, the Chiefs only decided to play for 15 minutes, and it was the last 15 minutes. They came through in the end, but it wasn't pretty, and it wasn't fun to watch.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 1
by Matt Severance - 9/7/2016

I'd like to tell you I'm really enthused about the 2016 NFL season from a personal standpoint, but that would be false because I expect very little out of my Chicago Bears. In fact, I probably won't even pay much attention to them until the Cubs allow me to die happy some day by finally winning the World Series. Already planning to need my stomach pumped that night.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 1
by Trevor Whenham - 9/5/2016

It's time for another year of tackling and dominating survivor pools. For the next nine weeks I'll be offering my picks and predictions for survivor pool success. We'll look at the most obvious and popular picks every week and determine whether they make sense or not, and we'll try to uncover a few gems along the way that will allow us to separate ourselves from the competition. Basically, we are going to do everything we can to win these pools.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 17
by Matt Severance - 12/30/2015

No Thursday night game (or Monday) in Week 17, so no need to get those Survivor Pool entries in early -- as I've said before, it's usually wise to totally steer clear of those Thursday games anyway and wait until your Sunday deadline to make a pick. Not taking advantage of the latest injury news is a mistake.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 16
by Matt Severance - 12/24/2015

Really a rather boring NFL Week 15 in terms of upsets as nearly every favorite won -- no earth-shaking results that should have affected any of those Survivor Pools still going. Do you consider Atlanta winning at Jacksonville an upset? The Falcons were slight underdogs. How about Houston winning at Indianapolis? I know the Las Vegas sportsbooks took a beating because so many favorites covered. The general public backs favorites and obviously so do Survivor Pool competitors.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 15
by Matt Severance - 12/16/2015

It's now clearly time to separate those teams that have mentally checked out on the rest of the season vs. those with something to play for. With three games to go in the regular season, there are 17 teams either in or within one game of a playoff spot. So you should be pretty safe backing one of those in your Survivor Pool if it's facing a team that already has players making tee times in Florida, Arizona and California for early January.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 14
by Matt Severance - 12/9/2015

We are now three-quarters through the 2015 NFL regular season and if you are still alive in your Survivor Pool, I'm sure the pickings are slim on teams going forward. Last week was a great example. Clearly the top choice on the board should have been Cincinnati over Cleveland, but I had used the Bengals previously and am sure you had too. Thankfully, I also had used New England as well in my competitions because the Patriots suffered a stunning home loss -- they had won 56 straight after a defeat -- to Philadelphia.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 14
by Trevor Whenham - 12/9/2015

We are pretty much at the end of the line for Survivor Pools for most people this year. Most pools have been won or are right down to the end. Because there have been a few really brutal weeks this season, and they have been well spaced out, there is a good chance that even second-chance - or third- or fourth-chance, for that matter - pools are over, too.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 13
by Matt Severance - 12/2/2015

Following Week 13, every NFL team will have played 12 games so we will be in the final quarter of the regular season. Already! That means we are getting close to "tank" mode for some teams. Somewhat surprisingly, there have been no playoff spots clinched yet. That could change on Sunday as the Patriots can win the AFC East with a win and Jets loss, the unbeaten Panthers can clinch the NFC South with a win, and the Bengals can clinch at least a wild-card spot with a win and some help.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 13
by Trevor Whenham - 12/2/2015

This has been a truly bizarre NFL season in so many ways. Aside from two absolutely brutal weeks, though, things have actually been pretty straightforward on the survivor pool front. Last week, for example, had some really surprising results on the scoreboard, but not among the games that seemed to be the most predictable heading into the week's action. It's nice that something is mostly making sense this year.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 12
by Matt Severance - 11/25/2015

Sanity returned to the NFL in Week 11 as there were no Survivor Pool-destroying upsets, although unbeaten New England was pushed pretty hard at home on Monday night by Buffalo. That was one of eight games last week decided by seven or fewer points. There have been 84 such games decided by a touchdown or less this season, the most through Week 11 in NFL history.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 12
by Trevor Whenham - 11/24/2015

Last week was reasonably straightforward for survivor pool players - five of the six most common picks were winners. Philadelphia was the lone exception - they laid an ostrich-sized egg against the Bucs. I got burned by my gamble on Case Keenum and the Rams in one of my leagues, and Oakland, Atlanta and Chicago probably broke a few hearts, but generally speaking most people who were still alive last week live to fight another day.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 11
by Matt Severance - 11/18/2015

Here's guessing your Survivor Pool competition has concluded as I've never seen anything like Week 10 of the NFL season. Look, I'm happy to admit when I'm wrong, but I was flat-out terrible last week. The only thing that gives me comfort is so was everyone else. In my Confidence Pool, for example, the winning score was the lowest in the five-year history of the league.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 11
by Trevor Whenham - 11/18/2015

It has been a cruel, cruel year for survivor pool players so far, and last week was certainly no exception. There were 14 games played. Eleven were won by the underdog. Included in the losers were four of the five biggest dogs of the week. When that happens you can be certain that a whole lot of survivor pool players had a lousy Sunday.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 10
by Matt Severance - 11/11/2015

I don't know what to say about what happened last Sunday. Back in Week 2, I know a lot of people took a double-digit favored New Orleans team at home as their Survivor Pool pick against a Tampa Bay team that was 2-14 last year and was starting a rookie quarterback. The Saints lost by a touchdown and knocked out several of you. That week, I warned against that pick.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 10
by Trevor Whenham - 11/10/2015

It was a pretty rough week for survivor pool players last week after several weeks of smooth sailing. Three of the six most-popular picks went haywire. The most damaging by far was New Orleans, who lost in overtime to a Tennessee team who only needed a coaching change to go from scrubs to all-stars. The other losses were less-popular among players but no less surprising - Atlanta channeled the pathetic team from last year for the third week in a row and somehow lost to the hapless Niners while making Blaine Gabbert look like the star he has never been, and the Broncos dropped from the ranks of the undefeated as Peyton Manning lost to Andrew Luck for the third time.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 9
by Matt Severance - 11/4/2015

Hard to believe already, but this week marks the halfway point of the 2015 regular season as every team will have played at least eight games by Monday night. There was one pretty big upset in Week 8 as Tampa Bay went to Atlanta and beat the Falcons 23-20 in overtime. It was one of two games decided in OT last week; there have been 11 this season, the fifth-most through Week 8 in NFL history. The record is 14 in 1995.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 9
by Trevor Whenham - 11/4/2015

Last week was again a mostly straightforward week for Survivor pool players. There were a couple of rough results - Green Bay wasn't expected to be as underwhelming as they were in Denver, and Atlanta had no business losing to Tampa Bay. Neither one was a possible pick for most players, though. That left much more comforting - and successful - picks to be made. Because things have been relatively smooth for a few weeks in a row, now I can't shake the feeling that we are due for another brutal week again.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 8
by Matt Severance - 10/28/2015

Pretty bland Week 7 of NFL action and unlikely any result caused a ripple in your Survivor Pool. Some might have found Jacksonville beating Buffalo in London surprising, but the Bills were down several key starters due to injury and that actually was my Upset Of Week selection. Kansas City beating visiting Pittsburgh was no shock as the Steelers were starting third-string QB Landry Jones.