Office Pools are a fun way for even casual NFL fans to enjoy a little bit of sports gambling. It is an excellent opportunity to bond with your colleagues, enjoy a little friendly competition, and most importantly, win a little money.
The staff at Footballguys also enjoys these contests, and each week we will publish our picks to give our subscribers some ideas on what teams to pick in your office pools or at your local sportsbook.
Each week, we will post our office pool picks with three different themes:
Office Pool – NFL Game Picks
Our staff will pick the winner of every NFL contest every week. They will also rank their confidence level in their selection from 16 (most confident) down to 1 (least confident). We'll also combine everyone's confidence points, giving you a Wisdom of the Staff confidence level as well.
Office Pool – Against the Spread Picks
Each week, the staffers will choose their eight favorite NFL games and pick the winner, based on the early Las Vegas lines for each of them.
Office Pool – Eliminator/Survivor Picks
Sounds simple, right? Just pick one team to win this week. The only catch is that you can only use a team once the entire season.
Week 1 Against the Spread Results
Here are the results from last week's contest. Teams are awarded 1 point for each correct pick and no points for an incorrect pick. Incorrect picks are in Red.
| Road Teams | DAL | KC | CIN | LV | TB | PIT | NYG | ARI | MIA | CAR | SF | TEN | HOU | DET | BAL | MIN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Teams | PHI | LAC | CLE | NE | ATL | NYJ | WAS | NO | IND | JAX | SEA | DEN | LAR | GB | BUF | CHI | |
| Game Lines | -6.5 | +2.5 | +5.5 | -2.5 | +2.5 | +3.5 | -6.5 | +5.5 | +0.5 | -2.5 | +1.5 | -7.5 | -2.5 | -1.5 | -1.5 | -0.5 | |
| Staffer | Record | Last Week's Picks | |||||||||||||||
| Duffy | 6-2 | PHI | LAC | CIN | NYJ | ARI | JAX | SF | BAL | ||||||||
| Lakins | 6-2 | CLE | LV | ATL | WAS | ARI | IND | DET | BAL | ||||||||
| Papworth | 6-2 | NE | TB | PIT | WAS | ARI | IND | DEN | LAR | ||||||||
| Roberts | 6-2 | PHI | CIN | NYJ | WAS | ARI | SF | GB | BAL | ||||||||
| Song | 6-2 | DAL | KC | CLE | NYJ | NYG | DEN | GB | MIN | ||||||||
| Blaylock | 5-3 | PHI | CIN | TB | NYJ | WAS | ARI | MIA | DEN | ||||||||
| Davenport | 5-3 | TB | PIT | ARI | MIA | JAX | SF | LAR | DET | ||||||||
| Alexander | 5-3 | DAL | LAC | CIN | LV | TB | NO | IND | CAR | ||||||||
| Hicks | 5-3 | CIN | TB | WAS | MIA | JAX | SF | BAL | CHI | ||||||||
| Brown | 4-4 | PHI | KC | PIT | WAS | ARI | IND | DEN | BUF | ||||||||
| Bitonti | 4-4 | PHI | CIN | LV | NYJ | ARI | SF | TEN | DET | ||||||||
| Carey | 4-4 | PHI | KC | CIN | NE | WAS | ARI | JAX | DEN | ||||||||
| Cummins | 4-4 | PHI | CIN | ATL | JAX | DEN | GB | BAL | CHI | ||||||||
| Grant | 4-4 | PHI | KC | NE | TB | WAS | ARI | IND | CHI | ||||||||
| Rudnicki | 4-4 | PHI | KC | CIN | NE | ARI | DEN | LAR | BAL | ||||||||
| Wagman | 4-4 | PHI | KC | CLE | TB | NYG | JAX | SEA | DEN | ||||||||
| Weisee | 4-4 | PHI | KC | NE | MIA | JAX | SF | DEN | MIN | ||||||||
| McCarty | 2-6 | PHI | KC | CIN | LV | ATL | PIT | MIA | JAX | ||||||||
| Haseley | 2-6 | PHI | KC | CIN | NE | TB | PIT | IND | SEA | ||||||||
| Dodgson | 1-7 | PHI | CIN | NE | NO | JAX | TEN | DET | BUF | ||||||||
Thoughts
As you can see, picking against the spread is not an easy thing. Buffalo came back to win the game on Sunday night 41-40, but since the spread was -1.5, anyone who took Buffalo ATS actually lost. Philadelphia had a confident win on Thursday night, but it wasn't enough to cover the 6.5 points that Dallas received from the spread. If you're putting actual bets on these games, anything over 50% would be a profit, and we all know that doesn't happen often.
This Week's Picks
The table below represents this week's NFL games and the point spread for each of them. The teams in the "Road Teams" row are the teams on the road, while the home teams are in the "Home Teams" row. The "Game Lines" row shows the line for each game. If the line is a positive number, the road team is favored. If it is negative, the home team is the favorite.
Example: The Washington/Green Bay game has a line of -1.5. That means Green Bay is favored by 1.5 points. If they are going to cover, they need to win by at least 1.5 points. Since a team can't score half a point, the Packers need to win by at least 2. Conversely, if Washington is going to cover, they need to lose by no more than 1.5 points. Again, a team can't score half a point, so the Commanders need to lose by no more than 1 point.
For this article, each staffer picks eight teams that they expect to win, factoring in the Line for each game.
Here are their picks.