NFL Survivor Pool Picks: Week 5 Targets and Avoids

October 5, 2025

The top NFL survivor pool picks for Week 5 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 5 of the 2025 NFL season! 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.

Week 5 begins the cycle of bye weeks in the NFL. The first set of byes includes the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Pittsburgh Steelers. I bet the Packers could use this bye now as a palate cleanser following not only their defense getting torched for 40 points by the CeeDee Lamb-less Cowboys, but also tying them. Not great!

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 5, with more information and data points about each team to help guide you on your quest to win your survivor pool! Now, let's get some boilerplate stuff out of the way before diving right in with our Survivor Pool picks for Week 5 of the NFL season.

Survivor Pool Tools and Resources

Love survivor pools as much as we do? Of course you do. Be sure to check these out:

Survivor Picks Tool
Optimize your weekly picks and plan your future picks with our free new Survivor Pool Picks Tool!

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 5

Before jumping into the picks for Week 5, it's helpful to get an overview of the slate with implied point totals, point spreads, and over/under totals from betting markets. All lines come courtesy of FantasyLabs each week.

My Weekly Survivor Picks

• Week 1: Denver Broncos (def. Tennessee 20-12)
• Week 2: Los Angeles Rams (def. Tennessee 33-19)
• Week 3: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (def. NY Jets 29-27)
• Week 4: Buffalo Bills (def. New Orleans 31-19)
• Status: STILL ALIVE!

Week 4 was a tiny bit dicier than I expected it to be, with the Bills only beating the Saints at home by 12. Still, we move on! Week 5 has the first set of bye weeks, which condenses the pool of games to choose from.

Now, let's look at the survivor pool pick recommendations to target and avoid for Week 5.

Top Survivor Pool Picks to Target for Week 5

Arizona Cardinals vs. Tennessee Titans

My pick for Week 5

Now that we're through the season's first month, the kid gloves are off. We've got enough data through four weeks to make some confident determinations about these NFL teams.

The Tennessee Titans are an objectively terrible NFL team. There's no two ways about it. The Arizona Cardinals aren't this monumentally superior team; let's not get it twisted. But there are a ton of factors in Week 5 that make this the pick to make in survivor pools.

The Cardinals are tied with the Buffalo Bills for the second-highest point spread of the slate as 8.5-point favorites. They've had a long layover with their Week 4 game on Thursday against the Seahawks and now host the Titans, who have scored the fewest points in the NFL through four weeks. That's a pretty nice combination of things going Arizona's way.

Looking at the game theory of selecting the Cardinals, a lot of survivor pool gamers may have used them in Week 1 against the New Orleans Saints or in Week 2 against the Carolina Panthers.

But if not, this is likely your last opportunity to use the Cardinals. Arizona's schedule is brutal after Week 5, with just a single matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 17 ( Joe Burrow could be back by then) in which you could play them.

Detroit Lions at Cincinnati Bengals

With three straight wins after a Week 1 dud to open the season against the Green Bay Packers, the Lions are back in everybody's good graces.

Normally, road teams that typically play indoors are teams to stay away from in survivor pools; I call it "the Drew Brees rule." However, the Cincinnati Bengals are a special kind of bad. It remains to be seen how long they plan on trotting out Jake Browning, but as long as they continue to, it's going to be awful for the Bengals and fantastic for their opponents.

Detroit comes into this game as a 10-point favorite, the largest spread in Week 5. If the Broncos can hang 514 total yards on the Bengals, what are the Lions going to do? Cincinnati is in a unique spot with the Titans as two teams that are in the bottom five in both offensive and defensive EPA per play.

The Bengals can't stop anybody and can't score to keep up. Sounds like a great combination for the Lions in Week 5! While Detroit doesn't have any slam-dunk matchups on its schedule aside from a Week 12 game at home against the New York Giants, it has a tough first-place schedule. If you have already used the Cardinals, I would be using the Lions to advance in my survivor pool this week.

Other Survivor Picks in Consideration:

• Indianapolis Colts (vs. LV)
• Kansas City Chiefs (at JAC)

Top Survivor Pool Picks to Avoid for Week 5

Minnesota Vikings at Cleveland Browns

Trusting a Carson Wentz-led team with my survivor pool life in Week 5? That certainly isn't on my bingo card, but the pool of games and teams shrinks a little bit with bye weeks now here. I can see how this spot would be a contrarian option against a Browns team crossing the Atlantic and will trot out Dillon Gabriel, a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start.

The Vikings are just a 3.5-point favorite in London's Sunday morning opener against the Browns, with a paltry 36.5 over/under. There won't be much scoring here, which leads to some volatility with defensive games that keep teams in it. An example of that is Week 3, where the Packers were up 10-0, made a couple of mistakes, and were shell-shocked by these same Cleveland Browns for the upset.

I'm not putting that kind of risk in my survivor pool entry. With the game overseas, those games can get a bit wonky anyway with the jet lag. Even with Minnesota playing a second consecutive International Series game, I'm not sure I want to be in the business of risking my survivor pool on the Vikings in Week 5.

Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans

The entire tenor and thesis of the Baltimore Ravens changed with a tweaked hamstring in the third quarter of their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4.

Lamar Jackson left and didn't return to the game, and will reportedly miss several weeks with that hamstring injury. Enter backup quarterback Cooper Rush, who inspires exactly zero confidence in these Ravens playing and performing like the Ravens we're used to.

Baltimore hosts the Houston Texans in Week 5, who come off a shutout of the Tennessee Titans. Houston's offense has been awful, with the ninth-worst EPA per play this season and an offense that, outside of Nico Collins, scares nobody. Its defense is very strong and is the saving grace, as it sports the seventh-best defensive EPA per play through four games.

The Ravens with a backup quarterback against a strong defense? That's gonna be a "no" from me on using Baltimore right now in my survivor pool. Wait until Jackson comes back and then reassess the matchups.

Other Risky Survivor Picks:

• Philadelphia Eagles (vs. DEN)
• Los Angeles Chargers (vs. WAS )

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