The NFL is back for Week 5 and while we’re not into the dog days of the season, things have settled down for the long haul. It feels like once we get into October, the next benchmark is the Thanksgiving slate. The trade deadline happens before then, but it’s not the same as the MLB or NBA trade deadlines as a major benchmark of the season. Once we get to Thanksgiving, we hit the playoff race in earnest.
We’ve got a pretty rough schedule for much of Week 5, but the late part of it could get interesting. The later afternoon slate is light, but highlighted by 49ers-Seahawks up in Seattle. Sunday Night Football features the Ravens against a suddenly interesting Falcons squad. Monday Night Football wraps the week with Bills-Rams, which was a preseason Super Bowl pick for a lot of folks.
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I’m back with my week 5 Survivor picks ahead of Bucs-Cowboys on Thursday Night Football. Survivor involves picking one team each week to win. If they win you advance, if they lose you’re out in most cases. I’m in one pool with four entries, but it’s also a double-elimination pool. I lost one entry after taking the Chargers and Bucs the first two weeks. I took a Bucs loss on another but it was only one strike, so I’m still alive with that plus no strikes on my other two. I made two Vikings picks and one Ravens pick last week to keep on chugging along.
Below I’ve got a look at the safest choices, best value picks, and then trap picks. I’ll post my own picks at the end. I’ll update on Sunday once I lock in my three picks for the weekend.
I’ve included odds for the favorite in each game, courtesy of FanDuel.
Cowboys (-8) over Buccaneers
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The Bucs gave the Packers a tough time last week, but for the time-being we can say Jalon Daniels is not a great answer while Baker Mayfield is sidelined. This is going to be a very popular pick even on the short week, but it makes sense given the matchup.
Falcons (-3) over Ravens
Cowboys over Bucs will be a popular pick, so if you really want to get crazy, you could roll the dice with the Falcons if Lamar Jackson doesn’t play. He sprained his ankle on Sunday and has an “outside chance” at playing. If you want to get a little nuts at this stage, pick the Falcons if Lamar is inactive. The one downside to this choice is the game is Sunday Night Football. If we don’t know ahead of 1 p.m. games exactly what Jackson’s status is, you should probably stay away.
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Jaguars (-7) over Eagles
The Eagles will be without both Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby. With DeVonta Smith also questionable for Sunday, it’s easy to see why people will be on the Jaguars this weekend. It’s a London game, so that raises all sorts of red flags taking the favorite.
I don’t want to spend all three picks on the Cowboys, but there’s a non-zero chance that happens. The short week offers a flag, but the Bucs are really bad right now. If the Cowboys go down in this game, it could be the week that blows up a lot of Survivor pools.
