NFL Survivor Pool Picks

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 9
by Trevor Whenham - 10/28/2013

We made it through another week of survivor pools, and as seems fitting in this bizarre season, we yet again saw a week where very few people were sent packing. In fact, I am alive in three different pools, and not a single person was eliminated in any of them. That shouldn’t happen at this point in the season.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 8
by Matt Severance - 10/23/2013

I'm glad my No. 1 choice last week, the Green Bay Packers, were able to beat Cleveland, because three of my next four most confident picks lost: New England in overtime to the Jets (a major letdown road game off the Pats' big win over the Saints, which I should have seen coming), Miami at home to Buffalo (it's really not a good year to be a pro football fan in the Sunshine State) and Denver at Indianapolis (Peyton Manning was clearly a bit drained for all the emotion).

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 8
by Trevor Whenham - 10/22/2013

The strange, strange survivor pool season moves on to the next week. For the second straight week it was very tough to get eliminated from a pool because all of the most obvious picks came through as expected. In the pools I play, only a few people were eliminated, and they made poor choices in each case. Sooner or later we are going to see an eliminator week — a series of games that leave a path of carnage behind them. Will this be that week? I’m guessing not, but that’s why they play the games.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 7
by Matt Severance - 10/16/2013

Unless you were silly enough to take the Houston Texans at home against St. Louis as your top pick in Week 6 survivor pool action, you are alive to see a Week 7. That was the only game considered a big upset, and I'm not even sure now that it was. Matt Schaub's confidence is clearly shot -- he left the game hurt, and then T.J. Yates continued a Schaub tradition by throwing a pick-six -- and I think the Houston players have tuned out Coach Gary Kubiak. He won't be back next year. Hey Houston, Lane Kiffin is available. I swear that guy only gets hired because his wife is smokin' hot.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 7
by Trevor Whenham - 10/14/2013

Last week in two different survivor pools I am in, I saw something happen that I really don’t remember happening this late in the season before — every single person survived. It’s not like they all picked the Broncos, either. There were five different teams picked in the two pools. In general, there are a lot more teams standing at this point in the season than we would normally expect.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 6
by Alan Matthews - 10/9/2013

What is the old saying?: Be careful what you wish for? Alas, in last week's Survivor Pool column I "wished" there had been a big upset this season that would shake up all those Survivor Pools. Probably the biggest had been Indianapolis winning as a double-digit dog at San Francisco, but that doesn't look like much of an upset any longer with how good the Colts are.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 6
by Trevor Whenham - 10/8/2013

I am probably cursing myself here, but at this point I would have to say that this has been a significantly easier year for survivor pools than we have seen in the recent past. Most weeks there has been a reasonably straightforward pick or three to choose from, and the upsets haven’t typically happened among these games. I’m not just basing this on my opinion, either — there are definitely more people still alive in my pools than some years.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 5
by Trevor Whenham - 10/1/2013

This season has so far been reasonably easy for survivor pool players. There have been clear choices, and much of the time you haven’t had to sweat the outcome of your pick. That changes this week. In fact, this week is absolutely brutal. There isn’t a single game that I am truly and deeply in love with — and that isn’t because of teams I have already picked. I can’t suggest picking against the Jaguars, which has been a great idea so far this year, because the Rams are an absolute mess.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 4
by Matt Severance - 9/25/2013

Last week's Browns-Vikings matchup in Minnesota is why NFL games aren't played out on paper or in computer simulations. It looked like a dog matchup, and the Browns were touchdown underdogs. They had just raised the white flag on the season in trading running back Trent Richardson. In baseball you will see teams quit when a star is traded, but the NFL is a different animal with players' careers so short -- and no guaranteed contracts -- that guys are going to go all out no matter what.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 4
by Trevor Whenham - 9/24/2013

There is good news and bad news when it comes to survivor pools this week. The good news is that we just came off quite possibly the easiest weekend in the history of these pools. Both Seattle and Denver seemed poised to crush the life out of outclassed opponents, and they did just that. It was highly unlikely that you had already picked both of those teams, so it was tough not to survive and move on. The bad news is that things are not quite so straightforward this week.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 3
by Matt Severance - 9/18/2013

As close as the games have been in the NFL through the first two weeks of the 2013-14 season, there really haven't been any earth-shattering upsets yet to shake up your Survivor Pools despite some close calls. Did you know that 22 games already have been decided by seven points or fewer? That's by far the most through the first two weeks in NFL history (previous high 19 in 2010). There have been 11 games decided by a field goal or less, tied for the most through the first two weeks. Finally, there have been 14 fourth-quarter comebacks so far, tied for the most through Week 2 of any season.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 3
by Trevor Whenham - 9/17/2013

Most times, Survivor Pools are tough. You have to really strategize and very carefully consider what pick is the right one for your circumstance. This is not one of those weeks. Unless you have already used up the Seahawks and Broncos in your pool — and you have made at least one poor pick despite the wins if you have used both — then you are left with a very easy pick. If you have used neither team then the only tough choice is deciding which all-but-certain win you prefer.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 2
by Matt Severance - 9/11/2013

What a crazy Week 1 in the NFL with 12 games decided by seven points or less, tied for the most in NFL history and a record for an opening week. And if you don't think the NFL is getting more pass-heavy than ever, there's this: Three players rushed for 100 yards, and one was a quarterback (Oakland's Terrelle Pryor). Nineteen players (!) threw for at least 250 yards, six for at least 350 and three with at least 400. There was a record 8,143 net passing yards. Also, 19 receivers had 100 yards. The days of going running back-heavy in a fantasy draft are clearly over.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 2
by Trevor Whenham - 9/10/2013

Another week of Survivor Pool action is upon us. Chances are that most people are still alive if they didn’t get too fancy, though Tampa Bay’s indescribably bad performance against the Jets could have been costly for some. As is so often the case in the NFL, things were not always comfortably easy for the best picks — New England and Indianapolis tried their hardest to win games they should have won easily.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 1
by Matt Severance - 9/3/2013

When the new Major League Baseball season kicks off each spring, every team might say that it truly believes it can make the playoffs. However, in reality there are probably 8-10 each year that know there's almost no chance. Ditto the NBA, especially this coming season when teams are "Riggin' for Wiggins" or tanking to draft super-hyped Kansas recruit Andrew Wiggins with the top pick in the 2014 draft.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 1
by Trevor Whenham - 9/2/2013

Fantasy football and office pools are great. Outside of betting on the point spread, though, there is no challenge better than a survivor pool. It’s a great combination of skill and strategy, and the thrill is heightened because there is absolutely no margin for error. It is a great handicapping puzzle.

Survivor Pool Advice for the 2013-14 NFL Season
by Matt Severance - 8/21/2013

It seems like forever ago but only yesterday that the lights went out early in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans, doesn't it? While I've been jonesing for football ever since, it's still shocking that the season kicks off two weeks from Thursday with the Super Bowl Champion Ravens visiting Denver in a rematch of their terrific divisional-round game from last season.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Divisional Round
by Matt Severance - 1/10/2013

Welcome to my final survivor pool picks column of the season – the 2013 opening weekend is only eight months away! I still very much remember opening week of this year, when the Redskins went to New Orleans and shocked the Saints, who hadn’t lost a game in the Superdome in 2011. That game wiped out many people in their competitions. Hopefully you took my advice in that one: “This game scares the life out of me if I am a Saints backer. Yes, New Orleans was literally unstoppable at home last season. But all those suspensions now are in effect from the bounty scandal and I’m not sure how the Saints respond. Plus, maybe Robert Griffin III tears up that suspect New Orleans defense. Stay far away.”

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Wild-Card Round
by Matt Severance - 1/3/2013

A tremendous regular season, which will be remembered mostly as Peyton Manning’s stellar return from a year away, Adrian Peterson’s assault on Eric Dickerson’s rushing record and a rookie quarterback class that might top the famed 1983 group, is in the books. The question remains, however: Is your Survivor Pool competition also finished? Every pool I have been involved in that remains deadlocked after Week 17 has continued into the postseason.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 17
by Matt Severance - 12/26/2012

It’s rather hard to believe we are entering the final week of the NFL regular season already. Hopefully my recommendations have been of some value for you in 2012 and you have already spent your winnings. But as noted last week, some competitions that remain tied after Week 17 spill into the playoffs, so I will write for the first two weeks in the postseason.