The NFL remains one of the most popular entities in the sporting universe, and survivor pools continue to be extremely popular among football fans. Various websites offer free survivor contests, so entering is like playing a season-long lottery ticket you never have to buy.
However, it's always a good idea to follow a strategy and do some research. If you have a firm understanding of the data each week, you can feel more confident in your choice before you lock it in.
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The best name in survivor pool advice and strategy is PoolGenius, a sports data site living under the TeamRankings umbrella.
All season long, The Sporting News is teaming up with PoolGenius to offer best-in-class strategy and expert advice to help boost your odds of winning NFL survivor. PG has a plethora of resources for survivor pool contestants, including a personalized and custom weekly data grid that reveals the best and most popular teams for each slate while offering advice tailored to your specific pool settings.
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Let's get right to the NFL survivor picks grid for Week 1 of the 2024 regular season, highlighting the teams with the best PoolGenius odds as well as the most popular picks of the week. Good luck, have fun, and here's hoping you all stay alive to see next week!
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NFL survivor Week 1 picks grid: Best and most popular picks
All odds and data courtesy of PoolGenius.
| Team | PG odds | Popularity |
| Bengals vs. Patriots | 74% | 37% |
| Seahawks vs. Broncos | 70% | 10% |
| 49ers vs. Jets | 69% | 4% |
| Bills vs. Cardinals | 68% | 14% |
| Lions vs. Rams | 66% | 2% |
| Dolphins vs. Jaguars | 64% | 3% |
| Bears vs. Titans | 63% | 4% |
| Chargers vs. Raiders | 62% | 2% |
| Falcons vs. Steelers | 61% | 2% |
| Buccaneers vs. Commanders | 61% | 3% |
| Saints vs. Panthers | 61% | 9% |
| Texans at Colts | 55% | 2% |
| Chiefs vs. Ravens (W) | 55% | 1% |
| Vikings at Giants | 54% | 1% |
| Browns vs. Cowboys | 53% | 0% |
| Eagles vs. Packers (Brazil) | 53% | 1% |
| Packers vs. Eagles (Brazil) | 47% | 0% |
| Cowboys at Browns | 47% | 1% |
| Giants vs. Vikings | 46% | 1% |
| Ravens at Chiefs (L) | 45% | 0% |
| Colts vs. Texans | 45% | 0% |
| Panthers at Saints | 39% | 0% |
| Commanders at Buccaneers | 39% | 0% |
| Steelers at Falcons | 39% | 0% |
| Raiders at Chargers | 38% | 0% |
| Titans at Bears | 37% | 0% |
| Jaguars at Dolphins | 36% | 0% |
| Rams at Lions | 34% | 0% |
| Cardinals at Bills | 32% | 0% |
| Jets at 49ers | 31% | 0% |
| Broncos at Seahawks | 30% | 0% |
| Patriots at Bengals | 26% | 0% |
NFL survivor Week 1 picks grid: Key takeaways
The first thing that comes to mind after checking out the grid: Cincinnati has PoolGenius's top odds and ranks as the most popular pick in Week 1. Joe Burrow is back, the Patriots are in a total rebuild after saying goodbye to Bill Belichick and drafting a rookie QB, and the game is in Cincy. If your strategy is to go as safe as possible, it's hard to argue with the Bengals being the optimal choice.
The Seahawks and Bills serve as the only other teams with PoolGenius odds of at least 68 percent as well as double-digit popularity percentage. Both face young offenses and often-porous defenses in Denver and Arizona, two of the most inconsistent teams in the 2023 season.
It's easy to be intrigued by the NFC defending-champion 49ers at home versus the Jets in Aaron Rodgers' first game back from his Achilles injury. It's also perfectly understandable if you like Caleb Williams and the new-look Bears against Will Levis and the Derrick Henry-less Titans. Kirk Cousins and the Falcons at home against the Steelers seems like a safe pick, too.
Best free NFL survivor pools in 2024
One of PoolGenius's great features is that for every survivor pool you enter, you can customize league settings — pool size, number of personal entries, etc. — to fully optimize your picks to win. Every pool is different so naturally, strategy can change from pool to pool even within the same week.
DraftKings FREE $1M Pro Football Survivor
The big kahuna of the free NFL survivor contest market, DraftKings already has nearly 600,000 entrants in its $1 Million Pro Football Survivor contest. Talk about a game-changing sum of money! As the pool is so high and the number of contestants is so massive, DraftKings made the wise decision to only allow one entry per user.
CBS Sports Football Pick'em
Another massive contest that should finish with an insane number of entrants, CBS Sports Football Pick'em features a $100,000 jackpot. The margin for error, like with DraftKings, will be very low considering it's a single-elimination format with a max of one entry per user. But that grand prize, though!
ESPN Eliminator Challenge Presented by ESPN Bet
One of the whoppers of the free survivor contest landscape, ESPN's Eliminator Challenge has a grand prize five times larger than the majority of its competitors. And that's not all — you can also create up to 25 entries! Talk about a guaranteed traffic driver! The only downside is that your odds of winning will be very low considering the sheer volume this contest will see this year. But if you can stay on top of it — and even contend through Week 10 — just imagine the rollercoaster of emotions throughout the season!
2024-2025 USA Today Pro Football Survivor Pool
One of the most popular pools running, the USA Today Survivor Pool features a fantastic $5,000 top prize. The entrant who survives the longest with the highest point differential wins the grand prize. What do we mean by point differential? It's a built-in tie-breaker that reduces the odds of having multiple winners at the end of the season. The point differentials of your selections are tallied throughout the season, and the survivor with the highest point differential wins any end-of-season tie.
Yahoo! Survival Football Challenge
Another leading name in free sports challenges with prizes, Yahoo has one of the most popular NFL survivor challenges on the Internet. Register to join the Survival Football Challenge group, join a friends' existing group, or create your own private group to play with family and friends. Custom contests allow you to play with a strike system so teams get a second or third chance if and when they pick incorrectly.
The Lines Pro Football Survivor
Another free contest with a $5,000 grand prize, The Lines' Pro Football Survivor is overseen by Catena Media affiliate betting site The Lines. The contest should increase exposure for the site, which obviously has less brand recognition than the aforementioned power players of the industry.
NFL survivor pools: Strategies, tips and tricks
Check out our complete breakdown of NFL survivor pool strategy, courtesy of our partners at PoolGenius. Looking for something simpler? We've got you covered right here.
Draft a plan at the start of the season
Decide whether your entry will be based entirely on first instinct and gut decisions or 100 percent research. Map out your first few weeks of picks, or maybe even your picks for the entire 18-week regular season. You can never be too prepared for an NFL survivor pool.
Pivot when necessary
Like Ross trying to carry a couch up a narrow stairwell in "Friends," sometimes you need to pivot. A team you thought at the start of the season would be a lock to win its Week 4 matchup might lose its starting QB to injury or fire its head coach. Don't marry yourself to a plan, strategy, or 18-week list of picks. Just like in fantasy and betting, we sometimes need to change up our order of attack.
Don't always follow the crowd
The proverbial sheep often get slaughtered in betting, and the same often happens in pick'em and survivor pools. Being slightly different than the crowd doesn't just make for fun stories — it often serves as the difference between an early exit and a true contender of an entry.
Have fun with it
Remember that the odds of winning, from the get-go, are statistically very low. Treat survivor pools like a free scratch ticket that you can improve your chances with thanks to some educated guesswork. But if you lose, what's the worry? You were expected to fail, anyway, and the L didn't cost you a thing. Sports — and any contest related to watching sports — should be fun, first and foremost.
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