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Over the past few years, we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com some help in playing office pools, one of the most popular methods to follow the NFL aside from fantasy football leagues. For the past few seasons, both Dave Larkin and I have written the “For The Win” column where Dave attempts to pick each and every NFL game against the Las Vegas spread. This has been a very popular feature, so this year Footballguys once again is presenting the Eliminator Challenge, where staffers have to pick a team to win each week. Just one? That sounds easy, but here is the catch – you can only pick the team you choose in a given week once all season long. Many contests and pools out there get pretty big, so an Eliminator (or Survivor) Pool can go 16 or 17 weeks.

Jeff Pasquino has provided some insight into this kind of contest previously with a preseason strategy article, which describes this kind of contest along with some advice on how to pick a team each week:

Survivor Pool Strategy

This pool will run all season long, but to keep participation up, the pool will crown the staffer with the best W-L record for the season (which means that everyone in the pool will continue to make picks every week).

THIS WEEK'S PICK SUMMARY

Here are the picks for this week.

DISCUSSION

Twenty-one staffers are in the pool, and it should be quite interesting right out of the gate. Week 1 has a larger number of games (8 of 16, or 50%) with teams favored by 5.5 points or more, making this an intriguing opening weekend. Seven of those teams made our list for the staff, starting with the Bills (hosting the Jets), who received the most votes with eight. Both the Colts (at Jacksonville) and Ravens (hosting Cleveland) came in second place with three selections each, while both the Eagles (at Washington) and Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs (hosting Houston this Thursday night) with two votes. The only two unique selections for Week 1 goes to Dave Larkin, as Dave decided to take San Francisco at home against Arizona, and our newest Footballguy, Jordan McNamara, who chose the Patriots (hosting Miami). Plenty of bigger favorites, but a few road teams (Philadelphia, Indianapolis) and every game but the Texans-Chiefs is a divisional matchup. Lots of variety, which could mean fireworks if there are Week 1 upsets this year.

Please note a few things: We will be doing these picks every week, win or lose, to keep it entertaining all season long. Normally a Survivor / Eliminator pool would end once all but one player lost once, but to provide our subscribers with more perspectives, everyone will pick every week even if they lose. That said, we will still try and honor the spirit of an Eliminator / Survivor Pool, trying to win every week and not re-use any teams during the year.

COMMENTARY

Each week, contestants are invited to submit any comments that they might have about their picks. If they submit them early enough, we post them with the article. If not, the comments will be within the section below.

Jeff Pasquino

Since I did not do a preseason breakdown or plan this year (and quite frankly, September tends to trip me up more than not), I am playing it a little more by ear this year - especially for Week 1. As I mentioned above, there are eight games with spreads of 5.5 points or more, including six divisional games: New England (-6.5 to -7) hosting Miami, Baltimore (-8 to -8.5) vs. Cleveland, Buffalo (-6 to 6.5) vs. the Jets, Philadelphia (-5.5 to 6.5) at Washington, Indianapolis (-7 to -8) at Jacksonville and San Francisco (-7 to 7.5) hosting Arizona. Rounding out the group of eight is the Thursday Night Football kickoff game with Kansas City (-9 to 9.5) favored at home against Houston, and the other non-divisional game where Pittsburgh (-5.5 to 6) is favored on the road at the Giants. One of the rules is to avoid divisional matchups, so that would have me pointing towards either the Chiefs or Steelers, but Pittsburgh on the road is a tough call, especially in Week 1. Kansas City should have better matchups than the Texans in the future, so I am almost forced back to a divisional matchup. Several of those matchups feature teams that should be in good shape to use later (Baltimore) and a few are on the road (Eagles, Colts) so that narrows the field to three games. New England is a big unknown with changes all over the offense, and Arizona added more firepower with DeAndre Hopkins - and they tend to play San Francisco very tough. That leaves one game that I like the most, which is Buffalo hosting the Jets. The Bills have improved with the additions of Stefon Diggs and rookie Zach Moss, while the Jets are still the Jets. Give me Buffalo this week.

The Pick: Buffalo

Will Grant

This year we really don't have a good idea of what teams look like coming out of camp because there hasn't been a lot of news. Teams with new quarterbacks or new coaches or new offenses could be crap or could be awesome. KC is an obvious choice for week 1 but since it's the first game of the season, I decided to wait a bit and pick against Washington - a team I think is going to struggle to win 4 games this year. Eagles may be banged up but Washington scares no one.

The Pick: Philadelphia

Chad Parsons

I went with the Ravens instead of the Chiefs for Week 1. Two factors went into this decision. First, Deshaun Watson has the 'beat a team nearly by himself' factor, even over Kansas City. The Texans winning would not shock me, nor should it shock the NFL. When in doubt, I am not a fan of picking eliminator teams when facing a strong quarterback. My second factor for picking Baltimore is losing, at home, to Cleveland would be a much bigger shock to open the season. Outside of a Lamar Jackson injury in-game, this would create huge ripples for the commentary before Week 2. If I'm wrong, at least there would be tremendous chaos creation with the Browns underwhelming in 2019 after being trendy Super Bowl picks and coming out in Week 1 and taking down Baltimore.

The Pick: Baltimore

Danny Tuccitto

Though I think home-field advantage isn't going to be as strong as usual this season, I think good teams hosting bad teams are still going to be a good bet. The only projected bottom dwellers playing on the road in Week 1 are the Dolphins and the Jets. And with the uncertainty surrounding a new-look Patriots, as opposed to the basically-the-same Bills, I went with Buffalo. It's also worth noting that Buffalo may not have another one of these good-hosts-bad games until Week 17, so I figured I'd get them off my board now and save the Ravens/Chiefs/49ers of the world for future weeks.

The Pick: Buffalo

Clayton Gray

I H-A-T-E picking Week 1. There are three games that stand out: Eagles at Football Team, Colts at Jaguars, and Jets at Bills. Of course, I try to avoid picking divisional matchups, so thanks a lot, 2020. Since I also try to avoid picking road teams, that leaves me with one option.

The Pick: Buffalo

Good luck this weekend!

Questions, suggestions, and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com

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