Brazilian Packers fans say São Paulo ready, excited for first NFL game
Brazilian Packers fans are ready, excited to see the team play against the Philadelphia Eagles in São Paulo.
The start of the NFL season brings the start of the fantasy football season. However, fantasy football isn’t the only game fans can play. Survivor pools are a much less intensive system, enabling fans to pick winners of a single NFL game each week. The catch is that one wrong pick eliminates you, and you can’t pick the same team twice in the same season.
Those caveats make survivor pools incredibly difficult to win. It’s all about playing matchups, keeping track of injury reports, and understanding home-field advantage. That said, the start of the NFL season often brings the most devastation in survivor leagues. Several teams are sporting new rosters, new players at key positions, and new head coaches. Those changes can make predicting a team’s winning potential a mystery.
Therefore, the safest way to survive Week 1 is by picking a game with as few question marks as possible. Are there any games where neither team has a new head coach and quarterback, and there is also a massive discrepancy in talent between those teams? Actually, there is.
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The Arizona Cardinals have a lot going for them on offense this year. Kyler Murray is healthy, Trey McBride has emerged as one of the league’s top young tight ends, they even added one of the best wide receiver prospects in Marvin Harrison Jr. through the draft. Their defense is still one of the worst in football though, and the Buffalo Bills have been offensive juggernauts for the last several years.
Sure, the Bills no longer boast star receiver Stefon Diggs, but they still have Josh Allen, who has reportedly built a rapport with rookie receiver Keon Coleman, Dalton Kincaid, and James Cook. With Diggs showing signs of slowing down in the second half of 2023, the Bills shouldn’t take too much of a step back in 2024. With the Bills playing host to the Cardinals in Week 1 as well, this is a very good bet to kick off the season.
Much like the Bills, the Bengals will also be at home in Week 1 against one of the league’s least-efficient offenses from a season ago. Did the Patriots do anything to improve their offense during the offseason? Not really. While the team did add Drake Maye through the draft, he has looked like arguably the least promising quarterback prospect of any that were drafted in the first-round this year. Furthermore, their defense lost one of their best players from a season ago, Matt Judon.
The Bengals may be without Ja’Marr Chase this week as he and the team discuss a potential contract extension. So long as Joe Burrow is healthy though, this Cincinnati offense should be capable of scoring more points than the lowly Patriots.
Although the Bears have not seen No. 1 pick Caleb Williams perform in a regular season game yet, they seem confident in his ability to lead this team. After all, the Bears traded away Justin Fields in order to give Williams a clear path to the starting job with zero competition.
Williams has been gifted one of the best receiving corps in the NFL, boasting Pro Bowlers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, as well as fellow top-ten pick Rome Odunze. If there was ever a quarterback built to win right now after being drafted first overall, it’s Williams, and his Week 1 test is easier than most. That said, there is certainly risk involved with this pick. Quarterbacks drafted first overall since 2002 are 0-14-1 as a Week 1 starter.
The Tennessee Titans added Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd on offense this offseason. They also added Chidobe Awuzie, L’Jarius Sneed, and Quandre Diggs to their second. However, they still have Will Levis at quarterback, who has not proven himself a franchise starter. In all fairness, we haven’t seen that much of Levis yet. Perhaps he has developed into a star. If that hasn’t happened though, the Bears boast a better roster and will have home-field advantage. This option is riskier, but should still work out in your favor. After all, Chicago is one of the weekend’s larger favorites at -4, per BetMGM.
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