NFL Survivor Pool Picks

If you’ve made it to week 7 in your survivor pool, you may be at a crossroads trying to select a survivor pool this week. Let’s go over which picks we’ve already taken and see which games we can look at.  Here’s a summary of the survivor pool picks:

Week 1 – Houston Texans over Miami Dolphins
Week 2 – Cincinnati Bengals over Cleveland Browns
Week 3 – Chicago Bears over St. Louis Rams
Week 4 – Baltimore Ravens over Cleveland Browns
Week 5 – New York Giants over Cleveland Browns
Week 6 — Atlanta Falcons over Oakland Raiders

This week, the biggest favorite is the New England Patriots (-10.5) over the New York Jets. I think you go with the Patriots in this spot. They’re at home and due for a bounce-back game after getting upset in Seattle last week. Your other option is the Minnesota Vikings over the Arizona Cardinals. The Vikings have played great football at home and should come out on top. The Cardinals don’t have much of an offense. I’m just not sure if I can trust my survivor pool pick on the Vikings, who are up against a very strong defense. The safe pick should be the Patriots at home, but if you’ve already taken the Patriots in your survivor pool and managed to survive, then my second favorite survivor pool pick would be the Minnesota Vikings over the Arizona Cardinals.

Week 7 Survivor Pool Pick: New England Patriots over New York Jets…

In Week 5, our survivor pool pick was the New York Giants over the Cleveland Browns. Gotta love pick against the Cleveland Browns in the survivor pool. We picked against them three times in the first five weeks of the NFL season and it hasn’t missed.

Here’s a summary of the survivor pool picks:

Week 1 – Houston Texans over Miami Dolphins
Week 2 – Cincinnati Bengals over Cleveland Browns
Week 3 – Chicago Bears over St. Louis Rams
Week 4 – Baltimore Ravens over Cleveland Browns
Week 5 – New York Giants over Cleveland Browns

In week 5, the easy pick here is Atlanta Falcons at home over the Oakland Raiders. It should be an easy win at home for the 5-0 Falcons since the Raiders have a lot of concerns in their secondary. Matt Ryan should go off and put up monster numbers. The Raiders offense has been lackluster and should be outmatched by the Falcons defense. The only concern here is that the Raiders are coming off their bye week. However, that just won’t be enough for them to top the Falcons on the road.

Week 6 Survivor Pool Pick: Atlanta Falcons over Oakland Raiders…

The survivor pool that I am in is already down to 3 teams from 50. There was a flury of upsets in week 3 — Chiefs beat Saints, Raiders beat Steelers, and Titans beat Lions. Hopefully, you went with Bears over Rams in week 3. Our week 4 survivor pool pick was Ravens over Browns. Let’s recap which teams are out for us:

Week 1 – Houston Texans over Miami Dolphins
Week 2 – Cincinnati Bengals over Cleveland Browns
Week 3 – Chicago Bears over St. Louis Rams
Week 4 – Baltimore Ravens over Cleveland Browns

There are a few games to choose from in week 5. As you can see, my favorite strategy for survivor pools is to take whatever team is playing the Cleveland Browns. This week that’s the New York Giants. I’m always hesitant to pick the Giants since they ended my 2011 survivor pool after getting upset by the visiting Seattle Seahawks. The Giants simply tend to not play up to their full potential against weaker opponents.

Other options for you to choose from are the Green Bay Packers over Indianapolis Colts, but the Packers are on the road this week. The last option that I see is the San Francisco 49ers at home over the Buffalo Bills.

I don’t think you can miss with either the Giants, Packers, or 49ers, it’s simply a matter of personal choice. If we look ahead to future weeks, Atlanta Falcons over Oakland Raiders in week 6 seems like the pick. In week 7, you’ll like want to take the 49ers at home over the Seahawks. In week 8, you with the Green Bay Packers at home over the Jaguars.

Since I am trying to save the 49ers and Packers …

You’re luck to have survived week 2 of your survivor pool if you avoided the New England Patriots and opted for the Cincinnati Bengals. We picked the Texans in week 1 and debated between Bengals and Patriots for week 2. The majority of fans voted for the Bengals over the Browns, which was the pick to make in order to “save” the Patriots pick for later in the season. Well played if you avoided the Patriots last week.

In week 3, I think the choice comes down to Chicago Bears over St. Louis Rams or New Orleans Saints over Kansas City Chiefs. I would like to stick to home teams, but if you don’t like either of those games, you can look into either San Francisco 49ers over Minnesota Vikings or Pittsburgh Steelers over Oakland Raiders.

Despite the Pats getting upset at home by the Cardinals, I still believe you do not pick road teams in survivor pools, so I’ll only focus on the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints.

I don’t have a lot of faith in the Saints defense, but their offense should be able to take care of business against the Chiefs at home. The Saints were 8-0 at home last year and covered the spread in every game. However, without the services of head coach Sean Peyton, the Saints are struggling, starting the season 0-2. The Saints will also be without WR Marques Colston.

I expect the Bears to rebound this week after their week 2 debacle in Green Bay. The Bears had 10 days to prepare for this one so the extra rest should be to their advantage. The Rams put up a hell of a fight the last two weeks and ended up beating …

In week 1 of our survivor pool picks, we selected the Houston Texans over Miami Dolphins. Other popular choices made were Chicago Bears over Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions over St. Louis Rams.

In week 2, there are three games that the majority of people are taking: (1) New England Patriots over Arizona Cardinals, (2) New York Giants over Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and (3) Cincinnati Bengals over Cleveland Browns.

I’m torn between the Patriots and Bengals. The Patriots is the safest play here and the only game that should be an absolute lock. In preseason survivor pool picks where I planned out every game for the remainder of the year, I had the New York Giants this week with the intent to save the Patriots pick for later in the season, specifically in week 10 over the Bills (or week 6 over the Seahawks).

It may seam foolish to save the Patriots until week 10 when you simply want to move on to the next week in the safest way possible while others take gambles on taking weaker teams just to save their stronger teams for later.

I don’t want to take the Giants over the Bucs for a few reasons. First, Eli Manning and the Giants ended my survivor pool hopes (and about 75% of others) in week 5 last year when they were upset by the Seahawks as 7+ point favorites at home. Second, the Giants just did not look good last week against the Cowboys. The Giants have some secondary issues to be concerned with. Their weakness is at the cornerback position. If Josh Freeman shows up on the road, he can do some damage with Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams. Tampa Bay also moved …

We posted potential survivor pool picks for the entire 2012 football season earlier.

My original survivor pool pick was New Orleans Saints over Washington Redskins.  The reason I picked the Saints was because there’s simply no other home game until the play Bucs in December which should be an easy win for them. I changed my picked to the Houston Texans over the Miami Dolphins. I still think the Saints will win this one, but the Redskins may put up a fight. With the Saints coaches suspended the Saints missing their best two defensive players in Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith, there was just too much risk with this pick. RGIII can also come in and have a Cam Newton-like debut.

Texans over the Dolphins is the much safer play this week. We all know the Dolphins offense will struggle to come up with points this season and the Texans were the 3rd best defense in the league last year. Look for the Dophins to be completely shut down while the Texans offense takes care of business to book the win. The Texans are the largest favorites this week as 12-point favorites.

Other potential options for you are the Chicago Bears over the Indianapolis Colts, Detroit Lions over the St. Louis Rams, or Philadelphia Eagles over the Cleveland Browns. They’re all winners in my book.

Here is my full analysis for the Texans vs. Dolphins game. My prediction in this one is Texans 24 – Dolphins 10.  Good luck everyone.

Week 1 Survivor Pool Pick: Houston Texans…

I’m starting to do some homework for my 2012 NFL Survivor Pool so I printed out the 2012 schedule, crossed off the games to avoid, highlighted the games to look at, and tried to narrow down my list. Here are the games on tap for you to choose from each week for your survivor pool.

The strategy here, look to see when the Browns (1-7), Dolphins (2-6), Colts (0-8), Vikings (2-6), Rams (1-7), Seahawks (3-5), Jaguars (1-7), Cardinals (2-6), and Buccaneers (1-7) are playing on the road and pick against them. Home team is in CAPS. Picks are in bold and underlined.

Week 1

Eagles over BROWNS
SAINTS over Redskins
TEXANS over Dolphins
LIONS over Rams
BEARS over Colts

Explanation: I have the Texans, Lions, and Bears appearing several times on my list so I want to save those picks. The Saints have a tough schedule playing the Falcons and Panthers twice. They have the Eagles, Chargers, and Broncos at home, which are by no means locks. Other than their home game in week 15 against the Bucs, this could be the best opportunity to take the Saints at home. The Saints were 8-0 at home last year. I don’t have the Eagles appearing on my list later this year due to their tough schedule, so it may be a good opportunity to take them, but I don’t want to take them on the road in week 1 of my survivor pool.

Update (9/1): I previously had the Saints, but I want to stay away due to the coaching situation and the Redskins may surprise some people with RGIII. Texans over the Dolphins is the biggest lock this week and I’ll play it safe to start out the year.

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