3 Picks for Your Week 5 Survivor Pool
If you’ve made it this far in your survivor pool, congratulations. Now here’s the bad part: The safe choices are few and far between in Week 5.
Here are three teams to consider to avoid being eliminated in your NFL survivor pool in Week 5.
Option No. 1: Pittsburgh Steelers
Even though the Jacksonville Jaguars have been surprisingly competitive this season, the Steelers are easily the safest bet on the board this week. Pittsburgh opened as 9-point favorite and even though the line was bet down to 8.5, the Steelers remain the biggest favorite in Week 5.
Granted, the Falcons cost bettors money a week ago by failing to cover as an 8-point home favorite versus the Bills. The Patriots also lost as a 9-point home favorite to the Panthers. Still, when you survey the rest of the Week 5 slate, you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: The Steelers are the biggest home favorite on the board and if you’re going down, Blake Bortles will have to win a road game. Sign me up for Pittsburgh.
Option No. 2: Philadelphia Eagles
This one makes me nervous, but the Eagles are the second-biggest home favorite in Week 5 and are taking on a Cardinals team in shambles. What I don’t like is that the Eagles flew cross-country a week ago, picked up a nice win against the Chargers and are now heavily favored versus a veteran team that won’t be a push-over. Still, Arizona’s offensive line is a mess, the Cardinals don’t have a running game without the injured David Johnson, and Philly has a nasty pass-rush, one capable of giving Carson Palmer fits. Plus, Carson Wentz is quickly turning into a play-maker for the 3-1 Eagles. I don’t like this play better than Pittsburgh, but if you used the Steelers already, Philadelphia isn’t a bad option given the rest of the Week 5 choices.
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Option No. 3: New England Patriots
I hate taking road teams in survivor pools. Hate it. Plus, not only are the Patriots playing on the road this week, they’re playing on short rest as their game against the Buccaneers is on Thursday night. That said, the Pats are also an incredible play coming off a loss. Since 2003, the Patriots are 42-7 the week after suffering defeat. That’s an 85.7% winning percentage. Normally I wouldn’t recommend burning the Patriots on the road in a primetime game on short rest and their defense playing like crap, but look at the rest of the games. There aren’t a lot of better options, so 85.7% chance of winning sounds good to me.