NFL · 2026 SURVIVOR PRIMER

Survivor is an allocation problem.

Everyone in a survivor pool gets each team once. That makes the weekly question two-sided: how likely is this team to win this week — and how much is it worth to still have them later? This page answers the first half with the season sim's weekly win probabilities, and keeps the second half attached as the caveat it is. Informational, always.

SOURCEseason sim · 10,000 runsWEEKS PRICED18POSTUREinformational onlyUPDATED1h ago
WEEK 1 · THE BIGGEST FAVORITE
Jacksonville Jaguars
74.0% to win in Week 1

That's the math, not a recommendation: the sim says the Jacksonville Jaguarsare the biggest favorite of Week 1. Whether they're the right survivor entry depends on what they're worth in Weeks 2 through 18 — and on how much of your pool burns the same ticket.

WEEK 1 · THE FIELD, BY SIM WIN PROBABILITY
#1 BIGGEST FAVORITE
Jacksonville Jaguars
74.0%
#2 BIGGEST FAVORITE
Los Angeles Chargers
73.2%
#3 BIGGEST FAVORITE
Detroit Lions
71.6%
#4 BIGGEST FAVORITE
Philadelphia Eagles
70.2%
#5 BIGGEST FAVORITE
Seattle Seahawks
65.1%
#6 BIGGEST FAVORITE
Miami Dolphins
61.5%
WEEKS 2–4 · THE EARLY SLATE
WEEKBIGGEST FAVORITES
Week 2Seattle Seahawks 81.2% · Los Angeles Rams 79.1% · Los Angeles Chargers 77.1%
Week 3Detroit Lions 79.3% · San Francisco 49ers 75.9% · Seattle Seahawks 74.9%
Week 4Baltimore Ravens 79.8% · Chicago Bears 76.2% · Seattle Seahawks 74.9%
THE CHALK OF EVERY WEEK · FUTURE VALUE ON ONE LINE
WEEKBIGGEST FAVORITESIM WIN %
Week 1Jacksonville Jaguars74.0%
Week 2Seattle Seahawks81.2%
Week 3Detroit Lions79.3%
Week 4Baltimore Ravens79.8%
Week 5New England Patriots84.2%
Week 6New England Patriots83.3%
Week 7Los Angeles Rams78.8%
Week 8Seattle Seahawks73.9%
Week 9Seattle Seahawks86.4%
Week 10Seattle Seahawks85.3%
Week 11Denver Broncos85.1%
Week 12Jacksonville Jaguars81.2%
Week 13Seattle Seahawks81.4%
Week 14Seattle Seahawks84.2%
Week 15Denver Broncos80.1%
Week 16New England Patriots76.8%
Week 17Seattle Seahawks78.0%
Week 18Houston Texans84.4%

Every percentage is the share of the 10,000simulations in which that team won that week's game — priors frozen at preseason values, so these drift from reality as the season actually happens. A week where a team doesn't appear is its bye.

THE CAVEAT THAT DOES THE WORK

The best Week 1 team is rarely the best Week 1 entry.

FUTURE VALUE

You get each team once. Spending the season's biggest favorite in September means not having them in December, when the pool is thin and the slate is short. The chalk-of-every-week table above is the other half of the decision: a team that tops Week 1 and three later weeks is worth more unspent than a team that tops Week 1 and never appears again.

POOL SIZE & THE CONTRARIAN CASE

In a big pool, surviving with the crowd is worth less than surviving alone. When most entries burn the same favorite, an upset eliminates half your competition for free — which can make the second-biggest favorite the better allocation even at a lower win probability. That trade-off is pool math, and it isn't on this page yet.

WHAT THIS PAGE IS

An informational primer over the season sim — the same walk-forward Elo priors as the win-total board, validated out-of-sample on win totals. It is not pick language, and it is not a graded product. The full allocation table — win probability, future value, and pool-size weighting in one place — ships with the weekly engine.

The same priors, season view. The win-total board.

All 32 teams with the mean, the 10th-to-90th percentile band, and division and playoff odds — simulated end to end off the same preseason Elo priors behind this page.