Football survivor pool strategy/picks, Week 13: Welcome to December survivors!

Welcome to Week 13! If you are heavy into fantasy football, playoffs are starting in the next week or two. If your favorite team is in the playoff race, these next few weeks are critical. And if like me you are a fan of a bad team like the San Francisco 49ers, draft watch is on!

However, if like me you are also still alive in your 2016 NFL Survivor pool, congratulations! Larger pools and double elimination pools like still have plenty of people still alive as we enter the final full month of the regular season. You have likely used a lot of big name teams, but maybe you have saved a New England Patriots or Green Bay Packers for use in these late weeks.

We are back once again with our rankings and picks for pools. We start with a consensus ranking of all teams in action this week, and which is most likely to win their game. The final two byes are this week, and unfortunately, that includes the winless Cleveland Browns. They have been a money option week in and week out for a lot of people, but you will have to survive Week 13 without being able to fade Cleveland.

Here is a look at our rankings of all 30 teams playing this week. That is followed by each writer making a pick, providing some reasoning for the pick, and then providing some alternatives to consider. Best of luck!

Primary pick: Green Bay Packers over Houston Texans
Secondary pick: Baltimore Ravens over Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Every week seems tough, but this was ridiculous. I’m going with Green Bay because I don’t see a Brock Osweiler led team pulling off the upset in Lambeau. Sticking with home teams, I also like the Baltimore Ravens to beat the Miami Dolphins. The Ravens can stop Ajayi and force Ryan Tannehill to beat him with his arm. Tannehill comes crashing back down to earth this week. My third pick would be San Diego. The Chargers run defense has been game and Jameis Winston makes mistakes fairly often.

Primary pick: New England Patriots over Los Angeles Rams
Secondary pick: Green Bay Packers over Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks over Carolina Panthers

The Patriots come in as double-digit favorites at home. They will have a great day defensively, facing a rookie quarterback making only his third start. New England will face one of their stiffest tests on offense against a stout Los Angeles defense. The Patriots will eventually make enough plays to pull away or I’m completely wrong and they’ll blow them out. My secondary picks would be Green Bay and Seattle. Green Bay comes back home and will face a Houston team that struggles on the road. It looks like Green Bay is going to make a push towards the playoffs over the final month of the season. Another team that plays completely different at home is Seattle. The Seahawks come home and play Carolina. With Seattle getting healthier on defense, they should be able to handle Carolina with little trouble.

Primary pick: New England Patriots over Los Angeles Rams
Secondary pick: Oakland Raiders over Buffalo Bills

This is one of the more hideous weeks of the Survivor season, and is no doubt complicated for many of us because of the 12 teams knocked off the board. There is only one true standout game this week, so if you still have the Patriots in your quiver, it might be time to fire them up. The odds of Jared Goff and the Rams winning this game on the road are really slim. The Pats are the safest play of the weekend.

And if you can’t go with New England? Hold onto to your helmets this week. Green Bay shouldn’t have too much trouble with Houston at home, but check the status of Aaron Rodgers, who was gimpy on Monday night. I would love to recommend Denver, even on the road against Jacksonville, but now Trevor Siemian is showing up on the injury report. New Orleans at home is always a good choice, but the Lions are a little scary right now with all their fourth-quarter magic. The team I like the most outside of New England is the Raiders. They are playing great football and they’ll be at home, where they are always tough. No disrespect to the Bills, but I can’t see them emerging from the Black Hole with a win.

Primary pick: Green Bay Packers over Houston Texans
Secondary pick: New England Patriots over Los Angeles Rams, Oakland Raiders over Buffalo Bills

Right now we are getting the best Aaron Rodgers, which is desperate Aaron Rodgers. The Packers essentially have to win out to have a shot of making the playoffs and the Houston Texans do not have enough firepower to hang with this buzzsaw Green Bay offense. The Green Bay defense also gave Carson Wentz, who is better than Brock Osweiler, a host of problems last Monday. Look for the Packers to win this one by a couple touchdowns.