NFL Survivor picks for Week 16
Survivor contests, much like the NFL regular season, are starting to come to a close. Those who have navigated some of the choppiest seas we’ve seen in the league over the last several seasons with the massive amount of significant injuries are getting close to the finish line.
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My personal Survivor journey ended this past week, as the SpookyExpress Survivor entry met its demise at the hands of the Titans. It was a great run and quite the experience, but we couldn’t make it to the end. If you are still alive in your pool, hopefully you can and hopefully this article has provided some assistance.
With that, let’s look at Week 16, where most of the big favorites are probably not available to you and a lot of games are closely-lined.
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NFL Survivor Picks to Consider
Kansas City Chiefs over Las Vegas Raiders
Philadelphia Eagles over New York Giants
I’ll just pair these two together in order to make the obvious statement that if you have one of these teams available in Week 16, it would be a great opportunity to use them. Both play on Christmas Day and both are at home in divisional matchups. Also, both have not played well lately, so there is some extra-added incentive to play well and take care of business.
Odds are that you don’t have either of them, so onward we go.
Buffalo Bills over Los Angeles Chargers
Another team that you likely don’t have, so I won’t waste too much virtual ink. The Chargers may get a bit of a bounce with Brandon Staley gone, but they’re still running Easton Stick out there against a Bills team that seems to have figured it out. But, they’re a double-digit favorite, so ignoring them completely would go against the spirit of the article.
Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers
Green Bay is a team that you may still have available, though the sweet spot to use them might have been a few weeks ago. The Packers are struggling right now with back-to-back losses and Baker Mayfield just hung a perfect passer rating on them. However, the Panthers don’t have any of the pieces on offense that the Bucs have. They don’t have Mike Evans. They don’t have Mayfield, a QB who is turning in a decent NFL career, though not exactly No. 1 overall pick worthy. Speaking of No. 1 overall picks, it has not been a good season for Bryce Young and I can’t see that changing.
The Panthers won last week, which says more about Mother Nature’s impact on a football game and even more about Arthur Smith’s impact on one. They’ve still lost 12 of their 14 games and the Packers are now a very desperate team heading to Charlotte, where the forecast calls for sun and upper 50s, not the Great Flood that we saw last week.
Denver Broncos over New England Patriots
A lot of remaining entries likely have the Broncos available for this game against the Patriots. It’s fair to wonder whether or not Bill Belichick can give the Pats a parting gift with the No. 1 pick, but that would also take some help from the Panthers. It’s also fair to wonder how much this subpar roster has to give in hopes of sending Belichick out with a positive or two.
A lot of factors converged on the Broncos last week. Some regression was likely coming and the Lions went back indoors and really rallied nicely for a lopsided win. I don’t think that game was a referendum on Denver, but it did give me enough pause to make them a consideration rather than the pick this week. The Lions have a lot more at their disposal than the Patriots. The other concern is that New England still has a decent defense, but I don’t know if they can score enough for the upset.
NFL Survivor Pick for Week 16
Chicago Bears over Arizona Cardinals
If you have already used the Bears, then look at the Broncos or one of the other teams mentioned above. Also, schedule an appointment with a mental health professional.
To me, this is a good spot to take Chicago. Their defense is wreaking havoc at this point and a healthy Justin Fields brings a lot to the table. The Bears feel like a team on the rise to some degree, despite that loss to the Browns this past week. For three quarters, they were far and away the better team, but a muffed punt and a half-yard led to a loss. Credit to Matt Eberflus and the coaching staff as well, who I felt kind of outcoached a quality Browns group for the majority of that game.
The Cardinals came off the bye and had 45 dropped on them by the 49ers. Nobody will mistake the Bears and 49ers for being in the same class, but it was a pretty poor effort from Arizona and likely a sign of things to come as they play out the string on a wasted season.
The Bears easily have the better defense and Kyler Murray has already been sacked 14 times in five games. It just feels like these two teams have different goals and one of them has the goal of winning football games. Add in the travel to Chicago on a holiday weekend and I could see a real no-show from the Cards.
