The NFL is back Thursday evening, with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Atlanta Falcons to get the season started. I imagine many of you are finalizing at least the early part of your fantasy lineups, but there will be plenty more decisions to be made on Sunday.
Beyond just fantasy football, it’s also time for pick ‘em contests and Survivor pools. We’re going to have the weekly prediction contest this season, and you can make those picks here. In the meantime, I’m also setting up a couple contests at Yahoo! for the site to join. The first is a traditional “Pick ‘Em” contest. We’re keeping simple, with you just picking each game straight up. We won’t get complicated with confidence points or the spread. The group name is Niners Nation and the password is go49ers. The group ID is 45734.
The second contest will be a Survivor Pool. In a Survivor Pool, you pick a different team each week. You can only pick a team once. If your team wins you stay alive. I have set it up so you get two strikes. If you lose once, you get another chance. If you lose twice, you’re out. Once you pick a team, you can no longer pick them this season. The group name and password are the same as for the pick ‘em contest. The group ID is 32471.
I’m taking part in a Survivor Pool with some friends, so that plus our pool will give me two different picks to make each week. I’m staying well away from the 49ers-Vikings game for this first week. The Green Bay Packers at home against the Chicago Bears, and the New Orleans Saints at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are two of the safer picks this week. The Baltimore Ravens at home against the Buffalo Bills is probably going to be one of the most popular. The Ravens have a lot of question marks, but the Bills are rolling out Nathan Peterman. Make of that what you want.
Tonight, the season opens with the Eagles and Falcons in the annual kickoff game hosted by the Super Bowl champ. The Eagles are a 1.5 point favorite, although in the Westgate SuperContest I’m taking part in, I could get the game as a pick ‘em. I’m not picking the game because I’d have to get in all five of my weekly picks, but I think the Falcons are going to handle their business against the Eagles. I don’t think it will necessarily be a blowout, but I think the Falcons offense is going to impress on national television.
Here are the rest of my straight-up picks. I’ll have my picks against the spread later this weekend.
Falcons @ Eagles: Falcons
Steelers @ Browns: Steelers
Bengals @ Colts: Bengals
Titans @ Dolphins: Titans
49ers @ Vikings: Vikings
Texans @ Patriots: Patriots
Buccaneers @ Saints: Saints
Jaguars @ Giants: Jaguars
Bills @ Ravens: Ravens
Chiefs @ Chargers: Chargers
Seahawks @ Broncos: Broncos
Washington @ Cardinals: Washington
Cowboys @ Panthers: Panthers
Bears @ Packers: Packers
Jets @ Lions: Lions
Rams @ Raiders: Rams