Mail
PrintNote: This is an outdated version of our Survivor Pool Strategy Guide. For the MOST RECENT version, click here.
Hopefully you’re still alive.
If you are, then congrats on avoiding both the Week 1 landmine (Saints over Redskins) and the bigger Week 2 landmine (Patriots over Cardinals).
Almost half of the competition in Week 2 chose New England as a heavy home favorite, meaning we’re well ahead of schedule in eliminating everyone in your NFL Survivor Pool.
At this point, this word of advice is probably appropriate.
Before the season started, we offered this NFL Survivor Pool Strategy Guide that attempted to use Cantor Gaming’s point spreads to set you up with at least a touchdown favorite in every week.
Week 1 pick: Lions over Rams (win, but barely)
Week 2 pick: Bengals over Browns (win)
Now, that original strategy guide is nice, but it’s a bit outdated. Some teams are better than expected, while others are worse, meaning we had to tweak the projected point spreads based on what we’ve seen so far.
Using those adjusted spreads, we’ve come up with a new Survivor Pool Strategy Guide below.
It should go without saying, but the original disclaimer still applies.
Disclaimer: Survivor pools are wildly random, and upsets happen all the time in the NFL. That’s what makes them so fun. The following is merely an attempt to most optimally plan for survivor pools, NOT a foolproof strategy by any means.
A few notes:
- The bolded games are the selections for each particular week.
- In weeks where more than one game is bolded, both teams are an option, but the one with the asterisk is the most optimal.
- Games in red are changes from the original strategy guide.
- Notice that we saved some of the worse teams on the list (Saints, Bills, Chiefs, etc.) for the final few weeks. If you’re still alive by then, you won’t have the greatest teams to choose from, but at least those teams are projected to be significant favorites.
- The Redskins were the main team that threw the original strategy guide off. We had the Steelers as a nice pick at home over Washington in Week 8, but we were forced to tweak that after seeing how great Robert Griffin III is in his rookie season. (Now we have the Steelers as an option in Week 12 at Cleveland.)
WEEK 3 (4)
Bears -7 vs. Rams
Cowboys -7 vs. Buccaneers
49ers -7 at Vikings
Saints -8.5 vs. Chiefs
WEEK 4 (5)
Ravens -12.5 vs. Browns
Falcons -7 vs. Panthers
Lions -8 vs. Vikings
Texans -7.5 vs. Titans
Broncos -9 vs. Raiders
WEEK 5 (4)
Bengals -8 vs. Dolphins
Packers -9.5 at Colts
Giants -10 vs. Browns
49ers -9 vs. Bills
WEEK 6 (3)
Falcons -8.5 vs. Raiders
Jets -7 vs. Colts
Patriots -7 at Seahawks
WEEK 7 (3)
49ers -9.5 vs. Seahawks
Packers -8.5 at Rams
Patriots -8.5 vs. Jets
WEEK 8 (3)
Packers -14 vs. Jaguars
Patriots -11 vs. Rams (in London)
Jets -9.5 vs. Dolphins
WEEK 9 (4)
Chargers -7 vs. Chiefs
Ravens -8 at Browns
Packers -13 vs. Cardinals
Texans -8 vs. Bills
WEEK 10 (4)
Patriots -10.5 vs. Bills
Ravens -10 vs. Raiders
49ers -11.5 vs. Rams
Steelers -7 vs. Chiefs
WEEK 11 (5)
Bills -7 vs. Dolphins
Falcons -9 vs. Cardinals
Cowboys -10.5 vs. Browns
Patriots -14.5 vs. Colts
Texans -11 vs. Jaguars*
WEEK 12 (3)
Bears -8 vs. Vikings
Steelers -7 at Browns
Eagles -7 vs. Panthers*
WEEK 13 (7)
Bears -8.5 vs. Seahawks
Lions -9.5 vs. Colts
Packers -12.5 vs. Vikings
49ers -7 at Rams
Patriots -10 at Dolphins
Jets -7 vs. Cardinals
Broncos -7 vs. Buccaneers
WEEK 14 (3)
Bills -6.5 vs. Rams
49ers -13.5 vs. Dolphins
Packers -8.5 vs. Lions
WEEK 15 (4)
Eagles -6.5 vs. Bengals
Saints -7 vs. Buccaneers*
Texans -11.5 vs. Colts
Chargers -6 vs. Panthers
WEEK 16 (6)
Packers -10 vs. Titans
Chiefs -7 vs. Colts
Steelers -6 vs. Bengals
Patriots -9.5 at Jaguars
Texans -10 vs. Vikings
Broncos -11.5 vs. Browns
WEEK 17 (WHO CARES)
If you’re still alive by this week, and you haven’t won your Survivor Pool, well, we don’t know what to tell you.
