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The top NFL survivor pool picks for Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season. Kevin's weekly survivor league pool targets and avoids -- expert picks for survivor leagues.
Welcome back to our NFL Survivor Pool Picks for Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season! Football is back, and the options are endless -- there are so many different pools, fantasy leagues, weekly bets, and futures bets that it's hard to decide what to do with these choices. But survivor pools are the oldest and simplest leagues out there. All you have to do is pick a team and have it win, but you can't choose the same team again.
All season long, I'll bring you weekly survivor pool advice for NFL teams to target and teams to avoid each week. Survivor league strategy is a major part of winning your pools, and this article will help you through the 2025 NFL season. We're ready to preview Week 2 and get you this week, which, even after one data point, is very difficult. Nevertheless, we must move forward.
In Week 2, you must make your decision based on one week's worth of data and trust your instincts. Are the Colts going to be steamrollers all season like they were in Week 1? What about the Bengals, who won but looked awful in their opening game against the Browns? As we get more data, we can solidify our stances on these teams for future weeks. But we have to win THIS week. Let's get some boilerplate stuff out of the way before diving right in with our picks for Week 2 of the NFL season.
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Survivor Pool Tools and Resources
Love survivor pools as much as we do? Of course you do. Be sure to check these out:
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Survivor League Guide
For detailed Survivor Pool strategy and tips to help you win, check out our "How To Win Your Survivor League" guide!
Implied Point Totals, Point Spreads, and Over/Under Totals for Week 2
Before jumping into the picks for Week 2, it's helpful to get an overview of the slate with implied point totals, point spreads, and over/under totals from betting markets. All implied totals come courtesy of FantasyLabs each week.
Now, let's look at the survivor pool pick recommendations to target and avoid for Week 2.
Top Survivor Pool Picks to Target for Week 2
Los Angeles Rams at TEN
So, it looks like we found the team to target in Survivor Pools, at least for now. Even against a Denver Broncos team that was clearly not their best, the Tennessee Titans. It's to be expected in a rookie quarterback's first start in the NFL.
The Titans now head home in Week 2 and will host the Los Angeles Rams, who came out of a rock fight with the Houston Texans and won 14-9. The Rams are almost a touchdown favorite (5.5 points) and even on the road, shouldn't have too much of an issue with Tennessee, which features the second-lowest implied point total of the slate.
QBs with the highest % of dropbacks under pressure
52.9% - Cam Ward
43.6% - Brock Purdy
41.4% - Joe Burrow
41.2% - CJ Stroud
41.2% - Jalen Hurts— Kent Weyrauch (@KentWeyrauch) September 8, 2025
Tennessee features one of the more suspect offensive lines, and on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage, a formidable Rams' front awaits Cameron Ward and company. The Rams in Week 1 sacked C.J. Stroud three times, picked him off once, and forced a fumble on Dare Ogunbowale deep in Los Angeles' side of the field to clinch the win.
The Rams have a pretty tough schedule this season, and with only one other slam-dunk matchup to use, the Rams -- Week 9 at home against the Saints. I'd rather take my chances now in Week 2 with the Rams in a pretty juicy spot against the Titans.
Baltimore Ravens vs CLE
Taking the upper-echelon teams in the NFL this early is something I typically like to avoid, but we don't have a lot of teams in advantageous spots this week. Therefore, that's why we have Baltimore here with a home game against the suddenly fun but still bad Cleveland Browns.
The Ravens have the largest point spread of any Week 2 team as they're favored by double-digit points against the Browns, who have the lowest implied point total for the Week 2 slate.
Even though the Ravens play a first-place schedule this season, there are still a couple of spots where taking them feels at least comparably good as this Week 2 matchup.
Baltimore does play the Browns again later in the season, but they also have a game in Week 9 against the Dolphins, who could be fading fast if their Week 1 performance is any indication. For Survivor Pool gamers, if you don't want to chance anything this week, picking the Ravens is about as safe as it gets for this week.
Top Survivor Pool Picks to Avoid for Week 2
San Francisco 49ers at NO
While the San Francisco 49ers won their Week 1 matchup 17-13 against the division-rival Seattle Seahawks, it came at a cost. It was quite a Thanos-level cost of "everything", but injuries took a toll on some key pieces of San Francisco's offense.
Starting quarterback Brock Purdy (shoulder, toe) could potentially miss time, star tight George Kittle already hit injured reserve with a hamstring injury that will shelve him for at least the next four weeks, and we're getting news soon about wide receiver Jauan Jennings' shoulder and whether or not he'll miss time too.
Brock Purdy has left shouler, toe injury. Toe is worse than shoulder, Shanahan says. As for Saints game this Sunday: "Not sure, has to see how it heels and how the week goes on it."
George Kittle (hamstring) out multiple weeks
Jauan Jennings (shoulder) MRI was OK, CT scan next
— Cam Inman (@CamInman) September 8, 2025
The New Orleans Saints are a pretty bad team, but they're still a professional football team, and they played the Arizona Cardinals pretty tough before losing 20-13. The 49ers are only favored by 4.5 points in the latest betting lines, but with more news about Jennings and especially
Purdy, that line could close big time. That removes one of the core teams in the Saints that we're targeting in Survivor Pools this season from the Week 2 slate. I'm not trusting the 49ers here, even if we get good news on the San Francisco injury front.
Denver Broncos at IND
The Broncos had a ready-made matchup in Week 1 against a rookie quarterback in his first start, where they could have just played the hits, let the defense do its thing, and get out with a comfortable win. Even though the Titans were awful, the Broncos weren't too far behind as starting quarterback Bo Nix looked out of sorts.
Nix threw two interceptions, fumbled once, and the Broncos only won by a score. In contrast, the Indianapolis Colts looked amazing as they scored on all seven of their drives with Daniel Jones at the helm and rookie tight end Tyler Warren helping lead that charge.
Denver is only a two-point favorite on the road at Lucas Oil Stadium, and in this game, we'll see if not only the Broncos can bounce back, but if the Colts are going to be a team on the rise. I don't want to hitch my wagon to either team just because we have one data point with the Broncos looking awful after a quality 2024 season and the Colts looking awesome after being a subpar offense the last couple of seasons.
More data points will help us determine whether we should have confidence in either team down the road, but I'm happy not having to make a decision in my Survivor Pool to choose either the Broncos or Colts.
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