The NFL is officially underway and we have a week in the rearview mirror. Last week’s biggest upset was the Giants beating the Cowboys while the 49ers pulled off a minor upset of the Rams in Australia. The Bills could get the most impressive win, putting up 36 points on the road against a stout Texans defense.
We’re back for week two and that means it’s time for another round of Survivor picks. If you’ve never played before, it involves picking one team each week that you think will win. If your team wins in week 1, you can make a pick in week 2. If your team wins in week 2, you can make a pick in week 3, and so on. The catch is that the team cannot be selected twice. You can make good use of a heavy hitter in week 1, but if you survive the last few weeks, you won’t be able to get them for the rest of the year. Most pools will kick you out after one wrong pick, but some offer a double elimination process.
I am here to give advice once. I’m in one Survivor pool, but I have four entries and it’s a double elimination league. Last week, I took the Chargers over the Cardinals, the Steelers over the Falcons, and the Jaguars two over the Browns. My LA pick went south, so I’m down to three entries undefeated and one on the mark. Check out the safest picks, the best prices, and the pitfall picks below. I’ll post my own picks at the end. Since I’m publishing this post on Thursday, I’ll update on Sunday after I’ve locked in my three picks.
I have included odds for favorites in each game FanDuel.
49ers (-13.5) over Dolphins
Ravens (-8.5) over Saints
The Dolphins struggled to do much against the Rams while the 49ers were good against the Rams. I think this can be closer than expected when the 49ers come back on the international day line, but the Dolphins are good opponents for this type of game.
The Saints gave the Lions a lot of trouble, but I think Baltimore is a more cohesive team than Detroit right now. I don’t buy the Saints looking as good as they looked last week.
Sprouts (-8.5) over browns
While the Browns looked good enough to be decent in their loss to the Bengals, the Browns are awful. Tampa is not a team I will use much for the rest of the year. Now, their biggest remaining potential spread is home games against the Falcons, Panthers and Saints — all divisional games. They may be able to make big strides in the coming weeks, but right now they’re not a team to invest in the rest of the way.
Chargers over Raiders (-6.5)
I guess the Chargers bounce back from last week’s embarrassing loss to the Cardinals. However, with a Raiders team that has shown some good signs of life, a divisional playoff doesn’t fancy itself as much of a possibility.
I’m not going to use the Bucs for all of my picks this week, but I’m leaning heavily toward those two. I don’t want to use chargers, but since we have four logs on hand, I’m tempted to use them anyway. I wouldn’t use them if this was a one-time pool, and with double removal on hand, I might use them anyway. I will sleep until Sunday and make the call. The 49ers are intriguing as a safe bet. There are some other options for using them later this season, but I don’t feel terrible about not having them available for an entry later this year.
