Football survivor pool strategy/picks, Week 15: Three familiar, easy choices

Week 15 of the 2016 NFL season has arrived! If you are still alive in your survivor pool, well done. I feel like we have not seen as many crazy upsets knocking people out left and right, but it is still no simple task to stay alive through 13 games. You are likely running low on teams, but there are still some very interesting matchups to make it to another week.

We are back once again with our rankings and picks for NFL survivor pools. We start with a consensus ranking of all teams in action this week, and which teams are most likely to win their games. The NFL is finished with byes, and we are coming down the home stretch. The winless Cleveland Browns and the 1-12 San Francisco 49ers are both in action, so Buffalo and Atlanta, respectively, are high-quality matchups. If you happen to still have the Seattle Seahawks, a home game against the Los Angeles Rams holds some value as well.

Here is a look at our rankings of all 32 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: Atlanta Falcons over San Francisco 49ers

Secondary pick: Buffalo Bills over Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers over Chicago Bears

When you blow a 14-point lead to the Bryce Petty-led Jets at home, it gives me little confidence to believe you can even be competitive traveling to the East Coast to play one of the better offenses in the league. The 49ers are bad. Really bad. While the Falcons may not be a complete team, they should easily hand San Francisco its 13th consecutive loss. If you already used the Falcons this season, I also like Buffalo to handle the Browns at home. Green Bay is hot right now and that doesn’t figure to stop against the Bears this week.

Primary pick: Seattle Seahawks over Los Angeles Rams

Secondary pick: Atlanta Falcons over San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills over Cleveland Browns

I realize that Los Angeles has beaten Seattle in its last three meetings. In the loss earlier this season, Russell Wilson was injured and the Rams’ defense took advantage of that. Currently, Wilson is healthy and the Seahawks are coming off their worst performance of 2016. Los Angeles fired Jeff Fisher and is coming in on a short week. Seattle is favored by more than two touchdowns. I’m not sure the Seahawks will win by that much, but I’m sure they’ll take care of business at home. My secondary picks are Atlanta and Buffalo. They get the honor of playing San Francisco and Cleveland, respectively. Atlanta is fighting for a division lead and might be improving on defense. Buffalo needs a win for its head coach and quarterback. I’m not sure if Cleveland has just given up or lacks the will to bring home a win.

Primary pick: Atlanta Falcons over San Francisco 49ers

Secondary pick: Buffalo Bills over Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks over Los Angeles Rams

Three weeks to go. Crunch time. Who do you have left? Who do you trust with everything on the line?

That depends on how you’re framing the question. Right now, I trust the bad teams as much as the good ones, and this week, I’m looking at three of the worst teams to help move us on in survivor leagues.

The three top targets, as always, are the 49ers, Browns and Rams. The 49ers might be the worst of the bunch at the moment, even worse than the winless Browns. For Atlanta, at home, this should be a slam dunk, even without Julio Jones. Like the Rams last week, the 49ers simply do not have the offense to keep up with the Falcons, especially in Atlanta.

And if the Rams couldn’t keep up with Atlanta at home last week, that’s likely to happen again in Seattle on Thursday night. I realize the Rams have had some recent success against Seattle, but let’s be real. Jared Goff is not going into Seattle three days after his coach was fired to beat a Seahawks team with a lot on the line. It’s not happening. The only reason to not play Seattle is you might save the Seahawks for next week vs. Arizona or Week 17 at San Francisco. I’d probably lean on using them now. Survive and advance.

The only one of the terrible three that gives me slight pause is the Browns. The Bills are a hot mess themselves right now, with Rex Ryan on life support. Which way does it break there? Do the Bills rally around Rex, or do they pack it in? Against the 0-13 Browns, it might not matter. Don’t be afraid to go with Buffalo if Atlanta and Seattle are off your books.

Primary pick: Seattle Seahawks over Los Angeles Rams

Secondary pick: Green Bay Packers over Chicago Bears, Houston Texans over Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons over San Francisco 49ers.

A lot of easy picks this week but it’s hard not to go with the Seattle Seahawks in Week 15. Thursday Night Football isn’t always the best quality of play and the Rams have a three game winning streak over the Seahawks, but I don’t see how Seattle doesn’t come away with a win on Thursday night. I expect the Los Angeles offense to open it up a little bit with the firing of Jeff Fisher, but that is going to feed right into the Legion of Boom’s hands. Look for Kam Chancellor and company to rebound after last week’s bad loss in Green Bay. Goff had a very rough time against the Falcons at home last week so I expect the Seattle defense at home to do the same. Some other picks I like this week would be Green Bay over Chicago, Houston over Jacksonville, and Atlanta over San Francisco.