Vikings and Ravens Lead Week 4 NFL Survivor Pool Recommendations

A Week 4 NFL survivor guide favors Minnesota over Miami and Baltimore over Tennessee as the safest calls, while flagging Seattle and Buffalo as traps.

Survivor pool players heading into Week 4 of the NFL season have a clear recommendation from Yahoo Sports contributor David Fucillo: back the Minnesota Vikings. His weekly guide, posted ahead of Thursday night's Steelers-Browns game that opens the slate, sorts the schedule into safe options, value plays and games to avoid, with odds drawn from FanDuel.

The format is straightforward. Each week an entrant selects one team to win, advances if that team prevails and, in most pools, is knocked out if it loses. Fucillo is competing in a double-elimination pool this season with four entries in play.

Week 3 results shaped this week's board. The Atlanta Falcons hammered the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, a result Fucillo read as evidence of how poor the Packers currently are. The biggest upset came from the Commanders, with Marcus Mariota at quarterback, handing Seattle its first loss of the season, and Jacksonville's rout of New England also drew notice.

His own entries have absorbed damage along the way. One was gone after two weeks because the Chargers and Buccaneers, his choices over the opening two weeks of the season, both lost. A second entry played the Steelers in Week 1 and the Buccaneers in Week 2 and now sits one defeat from elimination, though his three Week 3 selections, two on the 49ers and one on the Chiefs, all advanced.

Two teams stand out on the safe list. The Vikings, laying 10.5 points against the Miami Dolphins, and the Baltimore Ravens, favored by 11.5 over the Tennessee Titans, are the week's only double-digit favorites. Fucillo rates Minnesota as the stronger play because future opportunities to deploy the Vikings are limited.

Those later chances are thin. Minnesota projects as a home favorite against Atlanta in Week 12 and Carolina in Week 13, but the guide notes that Jacksonville hosting Tennessee and Denver hosting Miami should prove better values in those weeks for entrants who still hold the Vikings in reserve.

That scarcity makes Minnesota the value selection as well. Fucillo expects much of the field to lean on Baltimore, which he argues leaves the Vikings as the more sensible allocation across the board.

Two favorites come with warnings. The Seahawks, giving seven points to the Los Angeles Chargers, and the Buffalo Bills, laying 6.5 to the New England Patriots, are labeled traps. He expects Seattle to rebound from its stumble in Washington and has not given up on a struggling Los Angeles team, making it a risky spot for the Seahawks, while he anticipates Buffalo handling New England but sees no reason to spend a pick on a divisional matchup this early in a contest.

His own card was settled on Sunday. He had signaled during the week that he was leaning toward exactly this split, and after weighing the decision for several days he locked in two Vikings selections and one Ravens selection, using Minnesota in the pool where he is down to a single strike and splitting the Vikings and Ravens between his two entries with no strikes.