In our look at Week 10, we were "completely on board" with making the Chargers the top option in NFL survivor pools, even knowing such a move would be popular. Those looking for a pivot had two potential options in the Bears and Giants (we didn't know last Wednesday that Trevor Lawrence's injury would put the Vikings in the conversation too). Well, those two teams flopped, with the Bears getting dominated at home by the Patriots and the Giants losing in overtime to the Panthers in Munich.

Those losses potentially ended some smaller survivor pools considering the run of chaos earlier in the year. In the Circa Survivor pool, which started with 14,266 entries, only 105 are left after 42 entries that took one of those two teams bowed out and another two were sunk by the Falcons. Another seven were saved by the Bengals missing the final two-point try back on Thursday, and the 27 who took the Vikings probably feel like they got away with something after how bad the Minnesota offense looked in that game. 

When looking at your options for Week 11, it's important to project out the rest of the schedule (hence the point of this weekly column). It's also important to know the format of your pool, as Circa Survivor adds two standalone slates for Thanksgiving and Christmas. While they're off a bye and facing a team in the midst of disarray, I would avoid taking the Packers against the Bears.

Sometimes my choice for which team to avoid in this space isn't because I think the team is necessarily going to lose, and this is one of those times. I do expect the Packers to win, but a week ago this line was Packers -2.5 in Chicago. Now that it's boosted to be among the biggest favorites of the weeks (well, when you take out THAT game), I can see some people looking to pile onto the Bears' misery in survivor. But you shouldn't be able to remove one game from a team's resume (after all, almost every team plays an ugly game at some point) and then feel good taking a road favorite in a divisional game favored by less than a field goal. 

I also believe the offensive coordinator switch could have an immediate positive impact for the Bears, who unquestionably have talent on that side of the ball. This also has the potential to be a windy, rainy game that would reduce some of Green Bay's ability to run away with the win. There are a lot of factors that could lead to variance and should keep you away from fading the Bears this week.

Why listen to me? I went 636-534-34 (+4899) on ATS picks from 2017-23 and did even better with my top five picks each week, going 428-327-25 (56.7%) from 2015-23 in the Las Vegas ATS contests. While this doesn't involve picking against the spread, I do believe by applying the strategies I've developed to have long-term success on those picks to survivor pools, we'll be in the best position to outlast the competition this season.  

Below, you'll find my top options for this week as well as a tiered set of options for every week over the rest of the season, including breakouts for the Thanksgiving/Black Friday and Christmas slates. Let's dig in.

What are the best options to use in survivor pools in Week 11? And which teams should be saved to use later in the season? ... Join SportsLine right now to see NFL Survivor Pool strategy from the expert who's 636-534-34 on ATS picks from 2017 to 2023, returning almost 50 units!