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Welcome to our NFL Survivor Pool Picks for Week 18 of the 2024 NFL season! There are so many different pools, fantasy leagues, weekly bets, and futures bets that it's hard to decide what to do with these choices. But survivor pools are the oldest and simplest leagues out there. All you have to do is pick a team and have it win, but you can't choose it again.
This final week of the NFL's regular season is the last I'll bring you weekly survivor pool advice for NFL teams to target and teams to avoid. Survivor league strategy is a major part of winning your pools, and this article will help you through the 2024 NFL season.
Let's take a look at some teams to target and avoid for survivor pools in Week 18!
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Implied Point Totals, Point Spreads, and Over/Under Totals for Week 18
For detailed Survivor League strategy, and tips to help you win your league, check out our "How to win your Survivor League" guide.
Before jumping into the picks for Week 18, it's helpful to get an overview of the slate with implied point totals, point spreads, and over/under totals from betting markets. All implied totals come courtesy of FantasyLabs each week.
Now, let's look at the survivor pool pick recommendations to target and avoid for Week 18.
Top Survivor Pool Picks to Target for Week 18
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. NO
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers need a win and they win the NFC South. They can get either the No. 3 seed or the No. 4 seed, but essentially, it's win and in for the Bucs.
On the other side are the hopeless New Orleans Saints, who finish out their season in Tampa Bay and likely without Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, or Derek Carr. The Buccaneers are a massive 13.5-point favorite at home against the Saints. How long the Bucs will keep their starters in will be the question, but they likely do that when the game is out of hand.
Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans is 85 yards short of his 11th consecutive 1,000-yard season and you know that Baker Mayfield and company will bend over backward to make sure their stalwart receiver gets that mark.
But this game is very easy to parse: Tampa Bay has playoffs on its mind, so it'll be going full throttle. The Saints are ready to start finalizing tee times after Week 18. If you haven't selected the Buccaneers, this is one of the easier teams to select with an excellent shot at securing that final win in your NFL Survivor pool.
Baker Mayfield on the importance of getting Mike Evans his 11th 1,000-yard season. “You’re talking about tying somebody that has all receiving records across the NFL throughout history…somebody in this community that has raised people up…”
— Jenna Laine (@jennalaine.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Atlanta Falcons vs. CAR
We'll stay in the NFC South here as the Atlanta Falcons have one easy playoff scenario: win or go home. Clinching the NFC South is the only path to making the playoffs and that happens not just with a Falcons win, but with a loss by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
At the very least, both the Falcons and Buccaneers play their games at the same time, so there won't be some trickery with the starting lineups and important players being inactive right up against the game's opening kickoff.
The Falcons are 8.0-point favorites at home against a Carolina Panthers team that has been marginally better since quarterback Bryce Young returned to the lineup but ultimately is still pretty subpar.
The Panthers are also historically bad against the run, as they've allowed 200-plus rushing yards in five consecutive games -- the first team since the 1981 New England Patriots to reach that dubious distinction. If there's ever a game for Bijan Robinson to go off, it's this game.
It's *always* a Bucky Irving week. TB needs a win to make the playoffs and they get a poor NO run defense. Bijan Robinson is in a similarly excellent spot with ATL needing a win to make the playoffs. And Brian Robinson also looks great, though WAS is locked into the 6 or 7 seed.
— Stephen Hoopes (@stephenhoopes.bsky.social) December 31, 2024 at 5:52 PM
While the Falcons aren't great by any stretch, they're much better than the Panthers. The motivations for both teams are opposites, with the Falcons playing for their playoff lives while the Panthers are playing for nothing. Given the matchup against the Panthers, the Falcons will be one of the most widely-used options in Week 18 for gamers in their NFL Survivor pool.
Top Survivor Pool Picks to Avoid for Week 18
Arizona Cardinals vs. SF
Indianapolis Colts vs. JAC
Buffalo Bills at NE
Houston Texans at TEN
Philadelphia Eagles vs. NYG
I'm lumping five games into this space because all of them feature either two teams that are eliminated from playoff contention or a team that's locked into a playoff seed with no chance to move up or down.
With all of these teams, we have no idea who will be playing hard or who is ready to end the season as soon as possible. The Bills are locked into the No. 2 seed in the AFC and the Texans are locked into the No. 4 seed by winning the AFC South. Over in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles are locked into the No. 2 seed as the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions will play for the NFC's top seed.
Both the Cardinals/49ers game and the Colts/Jaguars games are comprised of eliminated teams where there are a massive amount of variables in terms of who is playing, who is not, and other factors yet to be determined. That doesn't make it a good scenario to choose a final team for your NFL Survivor pool.
The Indianapolis Colts showed their true colors last week in a 45-33 loss to the New York Giants, which mathematically eliminated them from playoff contention. Can you trust the Colts at all given what we saw last week against the Giants? With Brock Purdy not expected to play in Week 18 for the 49ers, it's incredibly difficult to project this game on either the Cardinals or the 49ers' side.
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