Week 1 NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Official Selections from Three Former Winners

It’s that time of the year again as the 2017-18 NFL season starts on Thursday, and we will now gear up for another season of weekly Survivor Pool picks. It has been a few years since I have won my pool, and I got all the way to Week 17 last week before getting bounced, so I am anxious to get back on the winning track this year.

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Here on this blog every Thursday three former winners, including myself, will give our official Survivor Pool picks for that week. We all play multiple cards, so we will offer four cards each that will run simultaneously throughout the season until we are knocked out. Once we have a loss on a card we will add an “X” at the end and will no longer offer picks on that card. We strongly recommend playing multiple Survivor Pool cards when rules allow it. With good strategy you can almost always last until far into the season using this philosophy.

Here are our Week 1 NFL Survivor Pool picks and advice for opening weekend:

Jeremy Martin

NOTE: I bombed out Week 1 before the Sunday games even started as the Chiefs played one of their best games in years and this was truly a shocking result. This is the first time I have ever been knocked out this early in any Survivor Pool I have ever played. A bit embarrassed to get knocked out so early and I probably put too much pressure on myself now that I am recommending picks to the public. I will shake it off and continue to provide my best advice throughout the season on my Opening Line Report, and hopefully my colleagues have a better Week 1 than I had! Since I did lose on the Thursday game I still had time in my personal Survivor Pool to buy one more entry so I will still have a stake in the season and hopefully this was just one bump in the road on my way to Survivor Pool victory.

Card 1: New England

Card 2: New England

Card 3: New England

Card 4: New England

Analysis: For the first time ever I am using one team on all four cards. If I am wrong here then my season will be over before most people’s even starts. I just think that the Pats are most likely to win out of any team this week, and that statement is coming from a life-long Chiefs fan. I am not opposed to picking against my own team, and in fact I made my largest NFL bet of all time on the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs several years back against these same Chiefs. As a fan it sucked to lose the game. But as a bettor it more than made up for it for a free trip to Amsterdam! With both teams at their best I think New England is the much superior team here. And the home team in these NFL Opening Kickoff games has never lost (on a Thursday matchup). I think the home team has a good chance to win this one by double digits. Some Survivor Pool “experts” say it’s best to save top teams until later in the season. I don’t believe in that strategy at all, and it probably rarely works out for those that do it. I try to pick the best selection for that week. If I am 50/50 on two teams then I may look ahead the next couple weeks and make my determination based on future opponents, but that is about the only time I factor in future matchups into my NFL Survivor Pool picks for that week.

Kyle McCarthy

Card 1: Pittsburgh

Card 2: Pittsburgh

Card 3: Atlanta

Card 4: Atlanta

Analysis: I try not to use the very best team in the first week of the NFL season, but week 1 is often the hardest week to handicap for a Survivor Pool as many of the lesser-talented teams have been game planning for Game 1 all offseason while getting a read on the mediocre teams are completely unknown. This week I am selecting the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are complete on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball going up against rookie QB Deshone Kizer and the Cleveland Browns.  Cleveland is slowly improving but will be completely overwhelmed in a easy win for the Steelers. My second selection is the defending NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons over the Chicago Bears. Chicago does not have a real threat on offense, and while the front seven defensive front of Chicago could give Atlanta problems early I expect the Bears defense to tire out and Atlanta will pull away in the second half for a victory.

Geoff Jenkins

Card 1: Buffalo

Card 2: Atlanta

Card 3: Pittsburgh

Card 4: Los Angeles Rams