NFL Survivor Pool Picks

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 10
by T.O. Whenham - 11/7/2012

The deeper we get into the season, the harder survivor pool players need to look for picks that they can use. That means that you have to find games with small spreads that are still worth a risk. This week eight of the 14 games on the schedule have a spread of four or fewer points. Let’s look at each of those eight close games to see which ones aren’t as close as they seem — and could be attractive for survivor pool players as well:

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 9
by Matt Severance - 10/31/2012

It’s unofficially the halfway point of the season this week as by the end of Monday night’s game every team will have played at least eight of its 16 regular-season games. There were a few somewhat surprising upsets in Week 8: Bucs over Vikings, Dolphins over Jets and Browns over Chargers (who are officially dead-men walking). I warned you the first two might happen and simply didn’t care much about the San Diego-Cleveland game.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 9
by T.O. Whenham - 10/30/2012

We have made it halfway through the NFL season. if you are still alive in your survivor pool then you deserve hearty congratulations. By now the obvious teams are all off the board, and it’s time to gamble and find some more creative choices to give you the edge and get you the win. Heavy favorites like Green Bay against Arizona or the Texans versus the Bills would be great picks, but those teams have almost certainly been used. Thankfully, though, there are five games on the board this week that are still attractive but more likely to be usable.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 8
by Matt Severance - 10/25/2012

For the most part, the NFL is now starting to skew back toward what we mostly expected – i.e. chalk. While there were earth-shattering upsets in the first few weeks, those are becoming harder to find. The Arizona Cardinals were a big early surprise and pulled arguably the upset of the year by winning in New England. But the Cardinals are now “who we thought they were” to quote a famous diatribe from ex-Cards coach Dennis Green. Arizona started 4-0 and is now 4-3.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 8
by T.O. Whenham - 10/25/2012

We are not even halfway through the regular season, but we are very deep into the survivor pool season. Because we are down to the nitty gritty, we’re going to change the format a little bit and look for the best and worst picks of the week regardless of what the odds happen to be.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 7
by Matt Severance - 10/17/2012

So why is Week 7 an important one to NFL teams? Because players who were placed on the physically-unable-to-perform list back in training camp or the preseason are eligible to be activated after their team’s first six regular-season games. Obviously, clubs that already have had a bye week would have to wait until Week 8, but someone like the Ravens’ Terrell Suggs could be activated this week.

NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 7
by T.O. Whenham - 10/16/2012

Last week in survivor pool action all you could really hope for is that you hadn’t picked the Falcons yet. Atlanta seemed like a very easy pick against Oakland. While they made things much, much harder than they should have, they ultimately won. If you couldn’t pick Atlanta, though, then things likely didn’t go very well for you. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Arizona, Minnesota, Cincinnati, New England — all reasonably popular picks that found ways to lose.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 6
by Matt Severance - 10/10/2012

My top two choices in Week 5 were the Giants over the Browns – although I recommended possibly shifting off them if Hakeem Nicks sat (and he did) – and the 49ers over the Bills. Neither team had much trouble in its win, and San Francisco became the first club in NFL history to put up 300 yards passing and rushing in its blowout of Buffalo. Mark it down now: Chan Gailey will be the first head coach fired.

Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 6
by T.O. Whenham - 10/9/2012

What did we learn last week in survivor pools? Don’t trust the Packers, and the Saints aren’t as bad as their record. Beyond that it wasn’t a particularly challenging week — at least not compared to weeks that have come before it. This is a particularly interesting week. Most weeks we see three or four games with spreads of more than a touchdown, so we have a wide range of games to choose from that are often relatively low risk.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 5
by Matt Severance - 10/3/2012

You could call the Vikings winning at Detroit a slight upset in Week 4 of the NFL season. Maybe also St. Louis at home over Seattle, Washington winning at Tampa Bay and Chicago stomping Dallas in Big D. But none of those really were that surprising, and, in fact, it was a pretty chalk week in pro football for the first time this year. Thus, no big surprises likely were seen in your survivor pool competitions, although Atlanta, Green Bay and Arizona all easily could have lost at home against underdogs.

Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 5
by T.O. Whenham - 10/3/2012

It was too late for a lot of people, but last week we finally had a week in the NFL that made sense from a survivor pool perspective. Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, and Green Bay were the four most obvious picks, and they all came through with a win — albeit just barely in the case of the Packers.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 4
by Matt Severance - 9/26/2012

Crickets. That is the sound emanating from survivor pools all around the country with many already having been emptied through just three weeks of the NFL season. There have been mammoth upsets each week so far, and Week 3 was no different. I recommended Dallas over Tampa Bay (Cowboys were somewhat lucky to win) and Chicago over St. Louis, both correct, but my top choice was New Orleans at home over Kansas City.

Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 4
by T.O. Whenham - 9/26/2012

Carnage. There is no other word to describe last week in the NFL — at least from a survivor pool perspective. The two most popular picks by far were New Orleans and San Francisco. The Saints showed just how deep their troubles run when they threw away a sure win against the Chiefs. The Niners, meanwhile, were inexplicably absent in Minnesota. Perhaps they were suffering a letdown after two nice wins against elite opponents to open the season.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 3
by Matt Severance - 9/19/2012

I would like to say I changed my mind between the posting of this column and the start of Sunday’s Week 2 NFL games. I would like to say I saw a big injury and that caused me to dump my top Week 2 survivor pool pick, the New England Patriots at home over Arizona. I would like to tell you that.

Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 3
by T.O. Whenham - 9/19/2012

Well, that sucked. In my biggest survivor pool more than 50 percent of the entrants went out thanks to the Patriots, and I was one of them. It was the perfect proof of just how hard these seemingly simple pools can be. My initial reaction to the setback was to second guess the pick. With a little distance, though, the competitive juices quit flowing quite so fast, and I realized that you can’t have any regrets.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 2
by Matt Severance - 9/12/2012

By know everyone knows what happened. I also mentioned to say far away from the Eagles at the Browns, and Philadelphia frankly should have lost that game if not for Cleveland rookie QB Brandon Weeden’s historically bad debut. I wasn’t sold on San Diego at Oakland, and the Bolts could have been beaten if the Raiders hadn’t lost their long snapper to injury (if you saw the game, you know what I mean).

NFL Survivor Pool Strategy, Advice and Tips for Week 2
by T.O. Whenham - 9/11/2012

It was a pretty straightforward opening weekend for those who play and love NFL Survivor Pools — unless you bought in to the Saints, of course. It seems like almost everyone went for the safe choice of the Texans, though, and that one was over almost as soon as it started.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 1
by Matt Severance - 9/5/2012

The opening week of a survivor pool is always a dangerous one because you just don’t know which teams predicted to be playoff contenders will fall off in a given year and which expected non-contenders will have breakout seasons. For example, many thought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be a playoff club in 2011. Josh Freeman was a rising star quarterback and the Bucs had gone 10-6 the season before.

NFL Survivor Pool Strategy, Advice and Tips for Week 1
by T.O. Whenham - 9/3/2012

The beginning of the NFL season means the start of survivor pool season. That’s a very good thing in my eyes. I love survivor pools because they are a good test of your football insight, and because the stakes are high — one mistake and you are out. They are also a great place to find value if you can find pools with relatively few seasoned bettors in them. The public often approaches these pools unwisely, so if you take the time to play them properly you can have a nice edge. Fun AND profitable — the perfect combination.

NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: 2012 Prologue
by Matt Severance - 8/31/2012

Each season I do these Survivor Pool picks for Doc’s, I try to come up with a different “theme.” Some hit and probably more miss. Last year was pretty simple: games worth considering, too even to bother, or too close to call.