What makes NFL survivor strategy challenging is that you can only pick a team once per season to win in a given week. However, there are no rules preventing you from targeting the same team each week, and the Carolina Panthers will be a popular target for Week 3 NFL knockout pool picks. A 37-point road loss to New Orleans was followed by a 23-point home defeat to the Chargers last Sunday. Bryce Young has been benched, leaving veteran Andy Dalton to start against the Raiders. Which team should you target with your NFL knockout pool picks and NFL eliminator pool picks? Before finalizing any Week 3 NFL survivor picks, see which team the red-hot SportsLine Projection Model just went all-in on.

The model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times, is up well over $7,000 for $100 players on top-rated NFL picks since its inception. The model enters Week 3 of the 2024 NFL season on an incredible 187-130 run on top-rated NFL picks that dates back to the 2017 season. It is also on a 41-22 roll on top-rated NFL picks since Week 7 of 2022. 

The model also ranked in the top 10 on NFLPickWatch four of the past six years on straight-up NFL picks and beat more than 94 percent of CBS Sports Football Pick’em players four times during that span. Anyone who has followed it is way up.

The model can be used to crush the Survivor Pool format, which calls for picking one team to win each week but never using the same team twice. In Week 1, the model recommended the Saints as its top survivor pick. New Orleans won in 79% of SportsLine’s simulations, and the Saints dominated Carolina, 47-10, in what was the most lopsided game of the opening week. Then in Week 2, the model recommended the Chargers, who were also picked to win in 79% of simulations, and L.A. also manhandled the Panthers, 26-3.

Now, it has turned its attention to the latest Week 3 NFL odds and locked in its Week 3 survivor pool pick. You can only see who the model is backing this week at SportsLine.

Top Week 3 NFL survivor pool predictions 

In Week 3 of the 2024 NFL season, the model is shying away from the Chiefs (-4.5, 46.5) versus Atlanta, even though the reigning champs have started off 2-0, with wins over preseason Super Bowl contenders in the Ravens and Bengals. However, both Baltimore and Cincinnati are winless on the season, so we don’t truly know how impressive those victories are. Additionally, each triumph could have easily gone in the other direction as Baltimore’s Isaiah Likely was, literally, a toe away from potentially giving Baltimore a chance to win with a two-point conversion, while KC needed a 51-yard FG with no time left to knock off Cincinnati.

Also, Kansas City is one of just three teams yet to go on the road this season, and they have the youngest team in the AFC, so we don’t know how many of those inexperienced players will respond in a rowdy away game atmosphere. Chiefs vs. Falcons will take place on Sunday Night Football, the Falcons’ first time hosting SNF in five years, so it will be as raucous an environment there could be. While the Chiefs are projected to win in almost 60% of simulations, the model is saving Kansas City for another week. See which team to pick instead here.

How to make Week 3 NFL survivor pool picks 

Instead, the model is backing a surprising team that wins outright in well over 70% of simulations. The time to pick this team is now, and you can only see the play over at SportsLine.

Which surprising team is a must-back in your Week 3 NFL survivor pool? Visit SportsLine now to see which team carries you to victory in Week 3, all from the advanced computer model that nailed both its Weeks 1 and 2 survivor picks and is up well over $7,000 since its inception.