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 2 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 | WAS | JAX | NYG | CHI | LAR | NE | SF | BUF | SEA | CLE | CAR | DEN | PHI | ATL | TB | LAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Teams | GB | CIN | DAL | DET | TEN | MIA | NO | NYJ | PIT | BAL | ARI | IND | KC | MIN | HOU | LV | |
| Game Lines | -1.5 | -5.5 | -4.5 | -4.5 | +5.5 | -2.5 | +7.5 | +8.5 | -1.5 | -12.5 | -4.5 | +3.5 | -1.5 | -4.5 | -1.5 | +3.5 | |
| Staffer | Record | Last Week's Picks | |||||||||||||||
| Papworth | 13-3 | GB | DET | NE | NO | SEA | CLE | ARI | TB | ||||||||
| Duffy | 13-3 | GB | JAX | BAL | DEN | PHI | ATL | TB | LAC | ||||||||
| Roberts | 12-4 | GB | JAX | DAL | DET | NE | NO | PIT | ARI | ||||||||
| Hicks | 11-5 | DAL | DET | NE | NO | PIT | PHI | TB | LAC | ||||||||
| Lakins | 11-5 | JAX | DAL | NE | NO | PIT | CLE | ARI | ATL | ||||||||
| Rudnicki | 11-5 | GB | DET | NE | NO | PIT | IND | PHI | ATL | ||||||||
| Weisee | 11-5 | DET | LAR | NO | PIT | ARI | PHI | TB | LAC | ||||||||
| G.Davenport | 10-6 | GB | DAL | DET | PIT | ARI | PHI | MIN | TB | ||||||||
| Alexander | 10-6 | JAX | CHI | TEN | NE | NO | BAL | KC | ATL | ||||||||
| Song | 9-7 | GB | CHI | NYJ | SEA | CLE | MIN | HOU | LAC | ||||||||
| Wagman | 9-7 | CIN | DAL | LAR | NE | SEA | CLE | PHI | TB | ||||||||
| Bitonti | 9-7 | WAS | DAL | DET | BUF | PIT | ARI | PHI | ATL | ||||||||
| Blaylock | 9-7 | CIN | DAL | TEN | NE | NO | BUF | PIT | IND | ||||||||
| Grant | 8-8 | CIN | DAL | DET | BUF | PIT | PHI | MIN | LAC | ||||||||
| Carey | 8-8 | GB | DAL | PIT | BAL | ARI | DEN | PHI | LV | ||||||||
| Cummins | 8-8 | CIN | DAL | CHI | NE | NO | SEA | ATL | LV | ||||||||
| Haseley | 7-9 | GB | DAL | DET | NE | NYJ | PIT | ARI | TB | ||||||||
| H.Brown | 7-9 | DAL | CHI | LAR | NE | SF | DEN | MIN | LAC | ||||||||
| McCarty | 6-10 | JAX | DET | SF | NYJ | CLE | PHI | ATL | LV | ||||||||
| Dodgson | 6-10 | JAX | DAL | NE | NYJ | SEA | BAL | DEN | ATL | ||||||||
Thoughts
Dallas nearly lost to the Giants but pulled it out in overtime, which did not save the staff from taking some major hits. The Steelers' loss to the Seahawks also hurt a lot of folks.
After 2 weeks of picking, all but four of the staff are at .500 or above. Three staffers at 12 or more wins out of 16 would put you into a solid profit margin if you were placing bets on these games in Vegas. Well done
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 Miami/Buffalo game has a line of -8.5. That means Buffalo is favored by 8.5 points. If they are going to cover, they need to win by at least 8.5 points. Since a team can't score half a point, the Bills need to win by at least 9. Conversely, if Miami is going to cover, they need to lose by no more than 8.5 points. Again, a team can't score half a point, so the Dolphins need to lose by no more than 8 points.
For this article, each staffer picks eight teams that they expect to win, factoring in the Line for each game.
Here are their picks.