Survivor Guide – Week 1 NFL Survivor Pool Picks

By: JM “Old School”

 

The “Ink” welcomes our new contributor JM “Old School.” Each week he’ll offer his best pick and some alternative picks for a Survivor Pool.

Are you ready for some football? I can’t wait, but it will probably be a month before a decent quality game is played. The NFL has no worthwhile preseason, no hitting in practice, and no defense. So, we will get to watch three or four weeks of sloppy football to start the season until the players get back to form.

Unfortunately, Survivor Pools start Week 1. For the uninitiated, the goal in a Survivor Pool is to pick one winner each week to advance to pick again the following week. No point spreads involved – your team just has to win. If your pick loses, you’re out. Generally, you can only pick a team once. The player “surviving” the longest is the winner. My job is to help readers survive each week.

There are about 8 to 10 good teams in the NFL that have a real shot at winning the Super Bowl. The next 10teams are average, followed by the rest of the teams that just stink. They are usually starting over with a new scheme or coach.

Only three games have at least a six-point favorite in Week 1, which tells me the odds makers don’t even know which teams are any good at this point. Most of the games have point spreads between 2.5 to 4 points. Flip a coin.

My top pick to “survive” Week 1 is Cincinnati (-8.5) at home against New England. My alternate is Buffalo (-6.5) at home against Arizona. Seattle is also a six-point favorite at home versus Denver, but I don’t know enough about either team to make it an official alternate.

Good luck to all for Week 1. See you next week . . . if you survive!