NFL 2025 Survivor Pool Journey - Mapping Out The Season And Your Week 6 Pick
Arizona. LA Rams. Buffalo. Kansas City. Philadelphia. Sayonara.
Week 5 was the most brutal week yet for survivor pools, but if you tailed me with the Detroit Lions free space then this was a beautiful sight to see. Here's how things shook out in my league. Shout out to whoever picked Carolina. What a comeback win for that single one out of 673 picks.
I don't know if this is common practice, but this league has some fun rules to manage ties. With so many people taking Green Bay over Dallas last week, anyone picking that game had to pick THREE teams in Week 5 and win them all to stay alive. All while then not being able to pick any of them moving forward. What a week for that to happen. Just a total blood bath. We get a print out of everyone's picks after they lock and some of the entries with ties even picked both Jacksonville and Kansas City as 2 of these 3 picks. Perhaps some form of survivor pool euthanasia. One entry took a double dose by picking Cincinnati. I kind of love that. A Hail Mary to see if you can just win the whole damn thing in Week 5.
368/1,107 entries remain. 33%. I'm assuming my pool is big enough so that the numbers are directionally the same as whatever your league has. So, it's likely the most picked teams listed below loosely corresponds for you:
1. Detroit (457)
2. Buffalo (433) (27 losers)
3. Arizona (426) (131 losers)
4. Denver (352)
5. Seattle (275)
Baltimore and Indianapolis follow. Can't imagine many winners from those Ravens picks. Of these top picks, we still have Seattle and Indianapolis playable, so we'll just keep that in mind as we consider the Week 6 slate. Lots of options for Week 6. Let's explore.
Week 6 Options
EAGLES at Giants
So here's the thing. Philadelphia has a very low usage through five weeks. I show just 13 selections in my pool of over 1,000. Kind of wild for a Super Bowl winning team who started 4-0. And the Giants just gave the Saints their first win of the season and Spencer Rattler his first career win now midway-ish through his second season. You couldn't ask for better conditions to have the masses flocking to pick the EAGLES. I almost think them losing to the Broncos helps things as people are anticipating the rebound game. Much like they did with the Colts in Week 5.
And for that reason…
Should be an easy breezy Thursday Night for those taking the Eagles. Unless they forget about the Thursday Night game, I guess. I'll just be hoping we get a shocker. Weird things happen on Thursday Night.
COLTS vs Cardinals
Now that a quarter of the pool is out on Indianapolis just from Week 5, this one strikes as a possible play. You could play the "Cardinals are going to get their shit together" card here, but this team might be worse than we're giving them credit for. And they get a lot of credit for Week 5. I mean - they beat the Saints and the Panthers. That's the list. 49ers, Seahawks, and Titans beat them and they go into Indy to face what we can only say now is an all around fantastic NFL team. 2025's "out of nowhere" team after receiving the baton from the 2024 Vikings.
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STEELERS vs Browns
Another team with few selections is the Steelers. So this one might give Philly a run for it's money - especially from those who don't send in picks in time for Thursday. The only problem is I still have the Browns in the "don't fuck with" category even after last week simply due to that defense:
Welcome to "We Ass" Giants. Hold a seat for the Cardinals because I think they might be finding their way there soon. And same goes for the Ravens who fell through a sinkhole. Probably should have updated that one earlier. Nice work Saints for getting promoted from garbage to "fuck with" as well.
As for the Patriots. I don't have them as "playable" yet. But let's discuss.
PATRIOTS at Saints
OK - I'll just put this out there. I'm not taking this game. It's enticing. Yes. And you might think "this is the week to take New England" before we can't really depend on them later in the season. But that's what lots of people are going to think.
However, the Pats play in Tennessee in Week 7 and are home for the Browns in Week 8. Why not at least give them one more week to make sure they consolidate being a team that can bring consistency. Consistency outside of Rhamondre Stevenson fumbling every quarter anyway. The win against the Bills was very impressive. But we need to make sure it wasn't "NFL makes no sense" first.
Don't take the Pats. Not yet. We'll come back to them in the next couple weeks maybe.
PACKERS at Bengals
Watch out! Joe is back for the Bengals! Well. Not that Joe. But a Joe. Flacco. I'm going to assume he won't be playing Sunday and this will be the last hurrah for Ja'Marr Chase to tally any more tackling stats. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but you never know when a good thing will end. So ride it while it's good. And picking Bengals opponents has treated us right the past couple weeks. Perhaps we make it a third?
Hmm…
THE PICK!
COLTS vs Cardinals
Lot of valid plays this week, but after mapping out a few rest of season road maps and considering the game play of which teams I think will be picked the most this week - I like the Colts as a team that should come in around the 10-15% selection range. So we can hope for the NFL to do NFL things to the Eagles, Steelers, Patriots, or Pack…lol can't even finish that thought. -14. That's a lot.
By saving the Packers, we can use them vs these same sad Cardinals next week. Like I was saying, I think the Cardinals are sneaky awful. Everyone knows they're kind of bad. But not everyone knows they're kind of awful.
Here's our rest of season road map. Might sneak the Pats in there the next couple of weeks if they prove to us this week they are for real.
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See you on the other side. Or maybe not.