Week 2 NFL survivor pool picks, advice, strategy: Expert who faded Bengals unveils top knockout pick

The New Orleans Saints had the most lopsided victory in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season with a 47-10 win over the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday and the Chargers are five-point favorites in the latest Week 2 NFL odds. Is a successful NFL survivor pool strategy picking whomever is playing the Panthers? The Chargers likely won’t be one of the popular NFL survivor pool picks often this season, so is it a wise Week 2 NFL knockout pool strategy to pick Los Angeles this week?

Baltimore Ravens (-8.5) vs. Las Vegas Raiders and Detroit Lions (-7.5) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers are two of the largest NFL spreads, so should you include either of them in Week 2 eliminator pool picks? The Cowboys are 6.5-point favorites against the Saints at home, where Dallas went undefeated last season, so should you play the Cowboys in your Week 2 NFL eliminator pool picks? Before finalizing any Week 2 NFL survivor picks, you need to see which team proven expert R.J. White is backing.

White has been SportsLine’s No. 1 NFL against-the-spread expert over the last seven years, going 636-534-34 against the spread to put him up more than 48 units on those picks at SportsLine since 2017. He has also delivered a 56.7% hit rate on his Vegas contest picks over the last nine seasons and has two finishes in the money, including finishing 18th out of 2,748 entries back in 2017.

His advice can be used to crush the Survivor Pool format, which calls for picking one team to win each week but never using the same team twice. In Week 1, White correctly recommended to avoid the Bengals, who lost to the Patriots as 8.5-point favorites. Instead, White picked the Saints, who beat the Panthers by 37 points in the most lopsided game of the week. Anyone who followed his advice avoided one of the biggest NFL upsets of the season and advanced to Week 2.

Now, White has turned his attention to the latest Week 2 NFL odds and locked in his Week 2 survivor pool pick. You can only see who White is backing this week at SportsLine.

Top Week 2 NFL survivor pool predictions 

In Week 2 of the 2024 NFL season, White is avoiding the Ravens (-8.5 vs. Raiders), even though they are the heaviest favorite of the week. The largest favorites are always a popular play in NFL survivor pools and if last week taught us any lessons, fading the heaviest favorite can put you in a prime position to win your whole contest if that team loses. The Patriots defeated the Bengals despite being the largest underdogs that week and that took out huge portions of NFL survivor pools. White believes this is another week where avoiding the largest favorite is a sound NFL survivor pool strategy.

But White is avoiding the Ravens beyond reasons other than just their likely popularity in pools. The Raiders went 5-4 in nine games after Antonio Pierce took over as interim head coach and the players clearly enjoyed playing for him as they pushed for him to become the permanent head coach this offseason. Derrick Henry had minimal success in Week 1 in his Baltimore debut, rushing for 46 yards on 3.5 yards per rush, as Lamar Jackson had to carry Baltimore’s rushing attack. The Ravens may want to limit Jackson’s rushing aggressiveness to protect his season-long health and if so, they need Henry and the entire offensive line to perform better than they did in Week 1 or Baltimore could be on upset alert. See which team to pick instead here.

How to make Week 2 NFL survivor pool picks 

Instead, White is backing a home team that “looks like it has one of the best offenses in the league.” The time to pick this team is now, and you can only see the play over at SportsLine.

Which surprising team is a must-back in your Week 2 NFL survivor pool? Visit SportsLine now to see which team carries you to victory in Week 2, all from the expert who avoided the Bengals in Week 1 and is up almost 50 units on ATS picks over the last seven years.