NFL Survivor League Pick For Week 2

Detroit Lions (vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

The chalk this week is almost certainly going to be Baltimore as they face the Raiders, which isn’t shocking at all. However, the Bengals were last week's chalk and they lost outright, and the amount of liability that will be on the Ravens from the sportsbooks will be massive. I simply don’t trust them in this spot, and plus, you want to save as many of these good teams for later in the season as possible. Detroit is a good team, certainly, but this is the best pick overall in my opinion.

The Rams should have won that game outright on Monday night if not for some terrible late game management by Sean McVay, but you also have to give the Lions some credit for that comeback. They weren’t at their best, but they found a way to win late, which is what the good teams do. This isn’t the Lions team of old that always found a way to lose those games. I am still quite high on Detroit even though I bet against them in the Monday game, and I think they can get a win here against Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers looked great last week against a Washington defense that is just plain awful, so I wasn’t super shocked about that. They have the weapons to be a good offense, but trusting Baker Mayfield is still just something that is very hard to do. The Commanders found some offensive success on the road against Tampa with a rookie QB, and now the Bucs defense will get Goff and the Lions in a dome. If Detroit has a sustainable rushing attack, like they had late in the game against Los Angeles, the passing attack might not be all that kills the Bucs here.

The Lions are a sizable -7.5 favorite, and the line has moved in their favor since the open. I am going to be watching out for where the public is betting in terms of the spread, but on the moneyline, I think that Detroit can take care of business and just win the game outright at home.

Other teams that I might consider this week, outside of the chalk on Baltimore, is Dallas and Houston. Both are scary picks, to be sure, but we just need them to win their games. I think some people are going to buy into the Saints after that Week 1 thrashing they gave the Panthers, but Carolina might be worse than we think. Dallas went into Cleveland, which is not an easy place to play, and dominated as an underdog. I am quite scared about the Texans, as I think a ton of moneyline parlays are going to include them as home favorites. However, the Bears are the Bears until someone proves otherwise.