NFL Week 15 is here and…wow. Just wow. This is now beyond ordinary crunch-time, baby! If you’re still here and looking for the best survivor pool strategy, it means you’re still alive and that, after what we witnessed last week, is absolutely amazing. It was another bloodbath of a week for most pools as the New Orleans Saints upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans upended the Cleveland Browns. At least 50-60-percent fo the remaining players in survivor pools were eliminated which makes this week even more exciting. Depending on who you have available, this week may not be as difficult to navigate as last week was, so let’s not waste any more time and get to the top NFL Week 15 survivor picks. We’ve got work to do.

As always, the best survivor pool strategy isn’t simply about picking the biggest favorite each week; it’s about understanding matchups, managing risk, and planning weeks ahead. Not too many weeks. Just four remaining in the NFL regular season. Sometimes, though, the football gods have a different plan. You can do all the right things, make the best picks and still find yourself on the losing side of things, like what we’ve witnessed several times this season already. We’ll try and help you avoid that as best we can. Those who are still in it are ready to scratch and claw their way to the final weeks, so identifying the best survivor pool strategy can be the key to outlasting the competition and claiming the prize. In this week’s article we'll take you through our process to help you make the most sensible picks to advance to next week and beyond.

 

 

Best NFL Survivor Pool Strategy for 2025 NFL Week 15

When it comes to lining up our top NFL Week 15 survivor picks, our mindset hasn’t changed regarding what the best survivor pool strategy should be. It continues to revolve around the "chalky" plays, if they are still available to you. You should definitely be looking ahead, but we’re still looking at the reliable favorites with the biggest spreads and hopefully, not overexposed in most pools. We prefer to have a home team and, in a lot of cases, avoid divisional matchups and short weeks if we can. Of course, the schedule-makers have a tendency to overload the back-end of the schedule with a lot of divisional match-ups, hoping to increase the drama. That’s great for TV ratings, but not for our survivor pool anxiety levels.

Here in NFL Week 15, the premium examples are the Seattle Seahawks who are a 13.5-point home-favorite over the Indianapolis Colts, the San Francisco 49ers who are a 13-point home-favorite over the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars who are a 12-point home-favorite over the New York Jets. If you have any of the three available, our friends over at Pool Genius have them listed as their top-three for this week, though not necessarily in that order. Keep reading to see who else Pool Genius recommends among their top-five picks this week 

 

 

Dominate Your Survivor Pool with Pool Genius

Back in Week 3, you got a great introduction to Pool Genius and everything they have to offer. It doesn’t matter that it’s Week 15 – there is still an opportunity for you to join and still take advantage of everything they have to offer. If this is your first time hearing about them, please allow me to show you the way, because they have some exciting tools to help you make the right picks. What happens is, you load in all the information about your pool – how many total participants, cost per entry, specific rules to your pool regarding things like repeat picks or buybacks and since we are already here in Week 15, who you’ve taken so far. From there, they analyze all the data and make suggestions as to who to take, so it is a VERY personalized service.

To continue guiding you, I am using all the tools Pool Genius has to offer and making one of my picks based solely off their data and recommendations. The pick I had been tracking in this article series had Arizona in Week 5, so I had to shift gears. As I lost my final pick on Black Friday thanks to the Eagles, I am out personally, but still using the tools here to help guide you to a win. I will simply discuss the top few recommended picks overall and from there, you can determine who you want to take each week.

The top Pool Genius recommendations are as follows:

  1. Seattle Seahawks (vs Indianapolis Colts, 3% popularity)
  2. Jacksonville Jaguars (vs New York Jets, 18% popularity)
  3. San Francisco 49ers (vs Tennessee Titans, 33% popularity)
  4. Chicago Bears (vs Cleveland Browns, 10% popularity)
  5. Philadelphia Eagles (vs Las Vegas Raiders, 26% popularity)

According to Pool Genius the 49ers are actually expected to be the most popular pick this week (33%) as a 13-point home favorite with a -800 money line. It’s pretty apparent as to why with how bad the Titans have looked despite the fact that they came back and beat the Browns. Surprising? Absolutely. Can they do it again? I doubt it. The game that ranks second-highest in popularity is actually the Eagles who are listed with an 83% win probability as an 11.5-point home-favorite against the Raiders. Pool Genius lists them as their fifth-favorite this week and while I think they can rebound from Monday night’s horrendous loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, I do prefer other teams ahead of them.

Now before I get to my favorite picks to use, I do want to remind you that Pool Genius is a paid service, but for the Fantasy Alarm #Family, they have some discounts available to you. The data and service they provide has been fantastic thus far and I feel confident using their suggestions. 

Now let’s get to my three favorite options for NFL Week 15:

 

 

NFL Survivor Pool Picks for Week 15

Indianapolis Colts vs. Seattle Seahawks: Pick Seattle Seahawks

Our friends over at Pool Genius list this one as their favorite this week, and I have to agree with them. The Seahawks look like they’re playing on another level, bit offensively and defensively. Sam Darnold carves up zone coverage and this defense is the best I’ve seen from them since the old Legion of Boom days.

The Colts’ issues are pretty self-explanatory. Daniel Jones tore his Achilles, their back-up Riley Leonard has a sprained PCL in his knee and they were forced to bring up Brett Rypien from their practice squad. And just to show you how desperate they are right now, they signed Philip Rivers to their practice squad and that dude hasn’t taken an NFL snap in five years. Giddy up, Seattle.

Tennessee Titans vs. San Francisco 49ers: Pick San Francisco 49ers

This one is my second-favorite while the folks at Pool Genius have it as their third on the list. We’re probably splitting hairs, but I also like the extra travel here for the Titans. The 49ers defense can struggle at times, but their offense is firing on all cylinders for the first time in quite a while. Brock Purdy should be better this week and who can argue with Christian McCaffrey, Jauan Jennings and George Kittle. Not me.

The Titans offense just isn’t going to produce enough in this match-up. Cam Ward is still the most-sacked quarterback in the NFL right now and you have to be out of your mind if you think Tony Pollard is going to have a game even remotely close to what he did last week. To me, this game is a no-brainer.

New York Jets vs. Jacksonville Jaguars: Pick Jacksonville Jaguars

Pool Genius lists this game as their second-favorite on the slate, but the Jets fan in me always has that “what if?” in the back of my mind. I don’t think the Jets come even close, but you know I’ve targeted against them before this season and don’t hate the pick. The Jags are on a roll right now and the Jets don’t even have a starting QB. Maybe it’s Brady Cook. If it is, the Jags defense is licking its chops.

Offensively, the Jags are starting to jell under the tutelage of Liam Coen. Travis Etienne is leading the backfield, their acquisition of Jakobi Meyers was strong and even Brian Thomas is starting to come around. The Jags should be a safe enough pick this week.

These are the picks in my order of preference this week. Best of luck to you all in your survivor pool contests.