Mapping out a season-long strategy is the key to success in making your NFL survivor picks. Week 1 may look easy by just taking the strongest team with the easiest opponent and worrying about Week 2 later. But things rarely seem to work out very well when doing that. Look at last year if you need a refresher. A lot of survivor pool entrants saw an easy win with an 8-point favorite in Cincinnati against visiting New England. Reality, however, hit hard when the Patriots posted a 16-10 upset win.

Although you don't always want to avoid heavy favorites early, using strategy and a look ahead at the schedule can help you decide if you should use favorites like the Eagles (-7.5), Commanders (-6) or Jaguars (-3.5) in Week 1. Before finalizing any Week 1 NFL survivor picks, you need to see which

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