Welcome to Week 5 of the NFL! Congratulations if you’ve survived this far through a wild first quarter of the NFL season. Crazy upsets, injuries affecting games, and teams like the 3-1 Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns seemingly coming out of nowhere. Let’s find out way into Week 6 as we make our NFL survivor picks for Week 5.
Last week in this article, the Minnesota Vikings gave us a small sweat, never really pulling away from the Miami Dolphins even though it seemed a bit like they were just playing with their food. This week, it’s another really tough slate to choose from and not one game that screams massive public spot. I’ll be interested to see how most people go, but I plan on advancing to Week 6 before the weekend even gets here.
The Lock: Dallas Cowboys
Thursday Night Football is not a place I go very often when it comes to making a Survivor selection. However, for me, there is no game I feel better about than taking the Dallas Cowboys over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So, we’ll roll with it and decide our fate before the weekend even arrives. Hopefully, we can kick our feet back and watch our league mates sweat away their picks.
Dallas is an 8.5-point favorite at home in this game. They come into this one at 2-2, having lost to a healthy New York Giants team in Week 1 on the road, and in Brazil to a good Baltimore Ravens team on quite literally the last-second play. They easily took down the Commanders and beat a good Texans team on the road last week. Now they come home on a short week and get to face a bad football team in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Not only has this been a bad football team this season, losing to the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers highlights that. But they are injured as well. Baker Mayfield is out. Undrafted rookie free agent Jalon Daniels out of Kansas is starting in his place once again this week. Daniels was alright against Green Bay last week, but the Cowboys should be able to sleepwalk through this game.
The Backup: Houston Texans
Maybe you aren’t comfortable with a Thursday night team, or crap. It’s Friday or Sunday, and you can’t play the Cowboys now. That’s alright, we’ve got a strong backup option. Now, it’s a bit weird to say a 0-4 team is a good pick for your survivor pool. I’ll also say this breaks the no-divisional-games and it’s a divisional game on the road rule. But for a very tough slate, they are still the next best option out there. Yes, Houston is 0-4. But they started last year 0-3 and made the playoffs. Guess who they saw in week four? The Tennessee Titans, who they throttled 26-0.
Houston has owned this series as of late, winning the last three games in a row and six of the last seven matchups. They’ve won five in a row at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, and six of the last seven, an overtime loss being the only loss there since 2018. Houston remains a good team despite their record, having lost to four good teams. Tennessee, on the other hand, looks terrible at 0-4 with really not many chances to win a game thus far. They have massive advantages across the entire field, and this defense will look like the best in the league this week against Cam Ward.
The Degen Special: Jacksonville Jaguars
Not convinced yet, or already used either of these teams? May I present to you the Jacksonville Jaguars? Or as we’ll call them this week, the London Jags. Much like Thursday Night games and divisional games, international games are ones we tend to stay away from. However, this is what the slate calls for. The Jaguars are making a routine trip to London, their second home. For this team, it’s something they are accustomed to.
They’ve looked outstanding this season, their only loss coming in a second-half meltdown in Denver where elevation clearly got to the team. Now, the team they face in Philadelphia, the Eagles, actually landed in this spot each of the first two weeks and would have panned out if you picked them in either of those games. They weren’t pretty, but they won. Since then, the wheels have fallen off. They’ve lost back-to-back games in embarrassing fashion to the Bears, and then in a second-half meltdown to the Rams.
They are without Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith has been injured and is up in the air for this week. Dallas Goedert has been out. Lane Johnson just retired mid-week. Now, they have to fly across the pond and put up a battle against Trevor Lawrence and a team firing on all cylinders. Who is setting in for a regular back-to-back set of games overseas? It’s a terrible spot for Philadelphia, and a great spot for Jacksonville.
Official Week 5 NFL Survivor Play: Cowboys
Official Play Teams Used:
Week 1: Jaguars
Week 2: Buccaneers
Week 3: Chiefs
Week 4: Vikings
