2023 NFL Weekly Survivor Pool: Week 2 Top Picks & Plays
It’s Week 2 of the 2023 NFL season, and we’ve got a week's worth of data points and actionable information gathered to make our Survivor pool picks for this week.
We certainly hope you’re still alive in your Survivor pool, as we’re going to help you get to the promised land one week at a time. If you’re not familiar with Survivor pools, here’s a quick rundown:
It seems simple: pick a team that wins each week. Typically, you’re choosing a team just once, so each selection is incredibly important. Some survivor pools have double-elimination so that you can slip up and still be in the running. Make sure you’re checking out our weekly matchup previews and our Survivor League Strategy in the Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide as guides toward picking the best winners for each week and developing a strategy. Let’s dive right in with Week 2’s picks!
2023 Survival Picks Record
Week 1: 3-2 (.667)
Overall: 3-2 (.667)
NFL Week 2 DraftKings Odds, Implied Totals, Spreads, and Over/Under
*All lines current as of 6:00 ET, 9/13/23, courtesy of Vegas Insider*
NFL Week 2 Survivor Picks
Dallas Cowboys
If there’s a team that’s riding higher right now after Week 1, I have yet to find them. After a 40-0 drubbing of their NFC East rival New York Giants on national television, the Cowboys head home to take on a Jets team that will have to go the rest of the 2023 season without Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers played all of 4 snaps before tearing his Achilles’ and ending his season. Zach Wilson was tabbed as the Jets’ starting quarterback going forward, and to show you how confident oddsmakers are in Wilson, the implied point total for the Jets stands at 15 points, easily the lowest total of Week 2. The Cowboys are 9.5-point favorites at home and should be able to notch a victory here.
The Cowboys are the heavy chalk play this week, but if you want to ensure survival this week, you can’t go wrong with picking the Cowboys to stifle a New York football team for a second consecutive week.
Buffalo Bills
The Bills may have tripped up and given away a game to the New York Jets on Monday Night Football, but they’ll be back in Orchard Park as they take on the Las Vegas Raiders in their home opener. The Bills have the highest implied point total of the slate as it stands right now at 28.25 points and hold an almost 10-point difference to the Raiders at 18.75 points. Along with Cowboys/Jets, this Bills/Raiders game has the largest point spread, with the Bills as 9.5-point favorites.
Nobody should be judging one of the biggest preseason favorites with a largely unchanged roster so harshly after Week 1, and you shouldn’t either. I’m still putting a ton of confidence in the Bills in Week 2 to get back to the Buffalo Bills we’ve been accustomed to over the last several seasons.
New York Giants
Just look back to last week, where we said that one of the picks each week would be whoever is playing the Arizona Cardinals. The New York Giants, the same Giants who fell on their own sword at home by losing 40-0 to the hated Cowboys, head west as the 5.5-point road favorites. Just like we talked about not judging teams by their Week 1 performances, the Giants are in the same boat. The Cardinals represent a get-right spot for the Giants, as they should have a sizable talent advantage here.
Weather and the Cowboys’ defensive buzzsaw were the undoings of the Giants, but they’re facing a Cardinals team that didn’t score an offensive touchdown against the Washington Commanders and is making an on-purpose decision to trot out Joshua Dobbs as their starting quarterback.
The Giants are still one of the better teams in the NFC despite playing nothing like it in Week 1. We like the pendulum to swing back the other way in Week 2 against an inferior opponent.
Other NFL Week 2 Survivor Pool Options
New Orleans Saints
The Carolina Panthers may just be this bad. They couldn’t muster any offensive momentum on the ground or through the air and now get the Saints at home. Taking a team on the road in a divisional matchup isn’t really the most optimal play, but the fact that the Panthers and Bryce Young couldn’t put together any cohesiveness on offense against a middle-of-the-road defense like the Falcons makes me really like the Saints this week. The Saints should put up much more defensive resistance after forcing three Ryan Tannehill interceptions in Week 1. Young could very well match or exceed that type of futility.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers are a much safer option than most going on the road to face their NFC West and division rival Los Angeles Rams. As 8.0-point road favorites, San Francisco should hold a decided advantage on both sides of the ball against the Los Angeles Fightning Puka Nacuas. The 49ers were electric against the Steelers, where Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey (152 rushing yards) dusted them for three touchdowns
I do have some reticence in playing the 49ers in this spot against the Rams, considering they’ll have much better matchups to use them, like the Cardinals twice and the Buccaneers. But this week, they should be a clear favorite amongst Week 2 Survival pool players.
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Player News
The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo believes RB Kaleb Johnson is a “schematic fit” for the Steelers offense.
Johnson, a third-round draft pick who last month was listed as a co-starter alongside Jaylen Warren on the Pittsburgh depth chart, was a hyper-productive back in Iowa’s zone-based rushing scheme, a system used frequently in Arthur Smith’s run-first offense. Only three college running backs in 2024 logged more zone rushes than Johnson. Johnson’s goals in offseason practices, according to DeFabo, “are to learn the playbook and earn the coaching staff’s trust with the hope of becoming an ‘every-down back’ sooner rather than later.” That might require Johnson to improve his pass blocking. The rookie said he’s worked on that with Warren — one of the best blocking backs in the NFL — in recent days.
The Chiefs will play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.
The Week 13 matchup will bring Patrick Mahomes and the AFC champion Chiefs to Dallas for the day’s late afternoon game. It could be a shootout if key players on both sides are healthy. Dak Prescott heads into the season with George Pickens as a legit WR2 behind CeeDee Lamb, and Mahomes — who has talked this offseason about more explosive plays for the KC offense — will have Xavier Worthy, Travis Kelce, Rashee Rice, and Hollywood Brown at his disposal. Mahomes has faced Dallas once in his NFL career, a Week 11 win in 2021 in which he threw for 260 scoreless yards. The hope for both the league and fantasy managers is that the Cowboys are still in postseason contention by the end of November.
Free agent Gabe Davis will visit the New York Giants.
Cut by the Jaguars after one season last week, Davis visited the 49ers on Monday. New York would be a reunion of sorts, as he played for Giants coach Brian Daboll in Buffalo. The G-Men already have several wideouts capable of stretching the field, but 26-year-old Davis could still be a decent role player in a strong offense. The problem, of course, is that the Giants profile as anything but, but rookie QB Jaxson Dart is comfortable throwing down the field.
Ravens S Ar’Darius Washington has been diagnosed with a torn achilles suffered during offseason training.
The fifth-year pro became a weekly starter for the first time last season, earning elite PFF marks in the process. He was a restricted free agent this spring but had yet to sign his $3.26 million tender. That’s a tough break, to put it mildly. Achilles timelines have shortened significantly in recent years, but Washington will probably still miss the entire 2025 campaign. The Ravens are protected in part by their first-round selection of fellow S Malaki Starks, but May is not the month you already want to be dipping into your depth. Going on 26, Washington’s career future is murky after he worked so hard to finally become a regular contributor last season.
Chiefs signed fourth-round WR Jalen Royals to a four-year contract.
Royals doesn’t have an obvious and open spot in the receiving corps to build short-term fantasy value with Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, and Rashee Rice operating in the opening 11-personnel package. He may or may not play his way into WR4 duties depending on how the team feels about JuJu Smith-Schuster. Royals has plenty of talent and Brown is on a one-year deal, so there is a future where Royals is more than a bit player for the Chiefs. It likely won’t happen in his first season without injuries in front of him.
Matthew Judon said he “probably” won’t return to the Falcons in 2025.
The Falcons, of course, drafted both Jalon Walker and James Pearce in the first round. In an exclusive interview with CardPlayer.com — not to be confused with our PokerNews.com James Cook scoop a few days ago — Judon said that his sack total was down because “I dropped (into coverage) on 60 percent of the plays. It’s hard to get a pick and a sack on the same play.” Judon also told Kyle Odegard that “a couple” teams had expressed interest in him but he was in no rush to sign.