The Commanders became the latest team to cause chaos in NFL survivor pools, losing to the Cowboys as double-digit favorites in Week 12. With the Texans also losing, it's possible many survivor pools were decided in Week 12 and crowning whoever took the Dolphins (or potentially the Chiefs, Broncos or Buccaneers) as champions.

For those that continue on into Week 13, whether it's needing to pick two teams in a 20-gameweek format like Circa Survivor, or only having to pick one team like most weeks, we have you covered. While the best options will be on that Thursday/Friday slate, there are still some interesting potential picks for Sunday and Monday.

When looking at your options for Week 13, 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. For those that got through Week 12 without backing them, I would avoid taking the Commanders against the Titans.

Washington just isn't playing well right now, even though that loss last week can be chalked up in part to two kickoff return touchdowns that made the final score look worse than it actually was from a statistical perspective. That being said, the Commanders needed an improbable long touchdown from Terry McLaurin just to stay in the game in the first place, which is wild when you consider the Cowboys were starting a backup QB against a Commanders QB in Jayden Daniels who people were suggesting as a potential MVP candidate earlier in the season.

The Titans have a good run defense and the Commanders might be missing their top two RBs due to injury, which will make the game tough to salt away in the second half if Washington has the lead. And we don't even know if that's going to be the case with the Titans offense playing well the last few weeks, even well enough to overcome a trademark awful Will Levis pick-six to shock the Texans on the road. Even though there probably isn't a good spot to use the Commanders after this if you still have them, I'd suggest avoiding them on the full-game slate, even if you have to take a shorter favorite.

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 13? 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!