Week 1 NFL Survivor Sinking And Look Ahead To Week 2

One of the new things I added to the this year's edition of Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual was to spotlight one team for each week of the 2026 NFL season as a 'Survivor Lean'.

Each selection was picked because it either had stats, trends or angles working in their favour for that particular week. The intent was to place that particular side up for consideration in survivor contests.

What's a survivor contest?

For those who don't know, a survivor contest is a season-long elimination competition in which participants select one team to win straight up each week. Once a team is picked, they cannot be used as a play later in the contest. If that team wins for their picker, the person continues to the subsequent week of games. If not, they're eliminated.

My survivor pick for Week 1

I chose the Los Angeles Chargers as the team to consider for Week 1. I also added it to the ESPN survivor game I entered ahead of the season.

My reasoning initially focused on the Chargers having a 6-4 (60%) overall straight up record over the Cardinals in games dating back to 1995. Narrowing it down, I pointed out the Chargers were 4-1 (80%) from five home games in this period.

That's not all.

Another stat I highlighted was that the Los Angles Chargers' head coach had a perfect record in winning Week 1 games as a HC.

Jim Harbaugh had gone 4-0 (100%) straight up in Week 1 games while in charge of the San Francisco 49ers between 2011 and 2014. He was also 2-0 (100%) straight up from his first couple of week one fixtures on the Chargers' sideline. 6-0 (100%) was a great stat. If I said so myself.

Harbaugh's run crashed out, along with my Survivor entry, yesterday following the Cardinals' 26-14 shocking win.

As well as winning outright, Arizona covered as closing +8.5 road dogs. They had been backed down from the +11.5 punters would have found them in Las Vegas following the release of the 2026 NFL schedule earlier this year.

A look at Las Vegas' elimination results following the Chargers loss

The LA Chargers' loss wiped out a lot of contestants from two marquee eliminator contests last night.

Circa Sports' survivor contest, which has a $1,000 buy-in, saw 7,585 players ousted because they sided with Harbaugh and his Chargers. That was 30.3% of the field.

As you'll see below, the Chargers were the second-best picked team from Week 1's entries. At the top of the list were the Jacksonville Jaguars. The 8,127 players who backed the Jags progress to Week 2 following the Florida-based team obliterating the Browns 34-10.

Circa also hosts a high roller elimination tournament which demands a $100,000 buy-in. The Los Angeles Chargers selection was the top pick in the Grandissimo, with 28 backers. The result wiped out 36.4% of the field.

Twenty-four players had Jacksonville. The ten who opted for the Lions must have wiped sweat from their brows after the Saints missed a two-point attempt in the closing play of overtime to give Detroit a 31-30 win.

The Week 2 survivor lean is also controversial

Ever since the opening game of the season, I had concerns over the second survivor lean in Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual.

That's because I have the Seattle Seahawks to win their Week 2 meeting with the... Cardinals!

Seattle's quarterback - Sam Darnold - was injured early in Wednesday's season kick off. Despite that, the Super Bowl Champions eked out a 13-10 victory over the Patriots. 

174 Circa Survivor players had Seattle to win.

What I wrote about the Seattle versus Arizona game for Week 2

Here's an extract from the chapter for Week 2 in Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026.

...there’s a collision of betting strategies for Arizona’s home game against the Seattle Seahawks.

First – with the Cardinals playing the Super Bowl Champions, they automatically become the team to consider on that fact alone.

The ‘Beat the Champs’ chapter suggests that it would take a brave gambler to back Arizona under these conditions because they currently hold 2-7 (22%) straight up and 4-5 (44%) against the spread numbers from all games against current titleholders. Those numbers surprisingly worsen at home with 1-5 (17%) SU and 2-4 (33%) ATS.

Also working against the Cardinals is the schedule.

Arizona would have played at the Chargers, on Sunday afternoon, while the Seahawks had a four-day headstart due to playing the season opener on Wednesday 9^th September.

The Cardinals are already in a hole against the Seahawks before a ball is even kicked. That’s because Seattle swept them once more in 2025 moving the Seahawks to 9-0 (100%) straight up and 8-1 (89%) against the spread from the last nine meetings between these NFC West division rivals.

The Super Bowl Champions are currently 31-18-1 (62%) straight up and 27-21-2 (56%) ATS overall from the fifty times they’ve met since 1995. On the road against the Cardinals, Seattle are 15-9-1 (60%) straight up and 13-10-2 (57%) to the spread.

This current series has seen the Over-Under go 24-26 (52% to the Under). The O-U is 14-11 (56% to the Over) from Arizona.

SIDE NOTE: Seattle won 35-6, as nine-point favourites, when they last visited Arizona as Super Bowl Champions.

The game, from Week 16 of the 2014 regular season, went Over its total of 37.

Oddsmakers installed the Seahawks as ten-point favourites in their early lines for 2026. The total opened at 44.5.

Spread for Seattle @ Arizona in Week 2

With the benefit of Week 1's results, and everything mixed in, I am even more curious to see the result of the Cardinals versus Seahawks.

For what it's worth, the Cardinals are currently +4.5 home dogs for the visit from the Super Bowl winners. That's a huge drop from May's +10.

I'll be watching.

Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026 can be ordered from these bookshops

2Pac 30

I have been listening to a lot of music by Tupac Shakur this weekend. I'm doing so to honour the thirtieth anniversary of his passing.

As I have written countless times on this blog over the past twenty-plus years, I was a 2Pac fan at the time of his death. His music has carried with me ever since.

I first began following Shakur in 1994. It was from two of his tracks - Loyal to the Game and Pain - appearing on the single of Warren G and Nate Dogg's Regulate.

Not long after that time, I read about Shakur being sent to prison. I actually recall the exact place I was when I read that news bit. It was in the South Wales Echo as I was delivering them one evening. 

2Pac's music appeared on MTV a lot while he was serving time. Dear Mama and Temptations are the ones I recall seeing the most. 

Those two songs appear on 2Pac's Me Against the World album. The title track brings back another memory of mine - a lad who was in my year at school arrived to pick up his GCSE results in a car blasting that tune out of it as my friends and I were leaving.

Every time I've listened to Me Against the World since that day,  I find myself landed back to that final walk down towards the school gates with my results in hand.

A few months after that, 2Pac was bailed out and signed to Death Row Records. That's when my interest in Shakur's music intensified. Death Row, at that time in my life, was my favourite record label. It was a perfect fit.

I have so many fond memories from the Death Row content. My parents bought me Pac's double album - All Eyez On me - for my birthday that year. Drunkenly dancing to California Love when they played it at the nightclub we used to go to (which - I must add - never played West Coast Rap!). 

Quite a few friendships I made at sixth form stemmed from being a Death Row and 2Pac fan. 

Another thing I've written a lot over the years is where I was when I found out Pac had died.

One of my best friends at the time, who I introduced to 2Pac's music earlier that year, told me about the Las Vegas shooting shortly after it had happened. I foolishly thought 2Pac would pull through because he had escaped death two years earlier, when he was shot in New York. 

On Saturday 14th September, I was on a hunt for a WWF Raw magazine that had sold out of the two shops I would find it. I took a chance on it being at a petrol station. As I walked across the forecourt, that very same friend - who was on his lunch break from his job in that area - came out. The news was broken to me at that point.

It's one of those 'Where Were You?' moments I'll never experience again due to how fast news works in this current age we live in.

My memories from the weeks, and months, following the news are just as vivid. 

The best one is seeing that 2Pac's first posthumous album had been released. If I recall correctly, I bought it on November 5th. I know it was from Spillers Records in Cardiff.

That album, which was released under 2Pac's Makaveli alias, became my favourite 2Pac record. In fact, depending on my mood, it could arguably be my favourite album from any artist.

The Seven Day Theory is gritty. I legitimately get goosebumps every time I listen. I make sure to have it on at least once a year. I listened to a few tracks last night and I'm certain to remind myself to play it when the thirtieth anniversary of its release.

I plan to listen to some more music across the day.

Seeing as I mentioned them early in this post, I'm going to play Loyal to the Game and Pain next...

£1 Bet Builder On United/City

I was given a £1 free bet to create a bet builder wager on any of the Premier League games for this weekend.

For today's post, because it's getting late and I don't have much to write about right now, I thought I'd ask Microsoft Copilot to come up with its own bet builder for tomorrow's Manchester derby.

It gave me five things to pick. As soon as I saw one of them, I slowly bowed by head as I shook it from side-to-side.

Copilot was immediately given the night off.

It suggested 'Casemiro to get carded'.

Casemiro left United - for Inter Miami - over the summer.

So, here's a non-AI bet builder for tomorrow's clash:

1. Erling Haaland 2+ shots on goal

2. Yes (Goal scored in both halves)

3. Over 2.5 goals

Kick off is at 4pm BST on Sunday.

UPDATE: None of the selections won! Manchester City won 1-0 from a Haaland second half goal.

Is The Chase Around The World A One And Done?

I recently read that ITV has seemingly decided not to commission a second series of The Chase Around The World.

In an article on the Mirror's website, the showbiz team declared the programme had been axed because it was seen to be 'one big flop'.

For what it's worth, a 'series spokesperson' has denied such a decision has been made. However, if the broadcaster has indeed pulled the plug on future series' of the unique game show, I would consider it unsurprising.

As I wrote on Friday July 17th, a day after watching the first ep, I floated the instinct that the game show - which saw teams of two go on trivia hunts across cities of the World with the prospect of facing two Chasers if they finish last - had potential of being a one and done.

Well, it looks like my guess could turn out to be accurate. There's no smoke without fire and all that.

I noticed lukewarm-to-negative reactions to episode one across social media. That despite the series, and most  - but not all! - of its contestants, growing on me as the episodes progressed.

The Chase Around the World was a fun spinoff of the teatime quiz show. I'll miss it if those initial reports turn out to be true.

1-0 Following Seattle's Season Kick Off

I suppose you could call last night a positive start to my NFL pick 'em campaign for the 2026 season.

I'm currently 1-0 in three of the four contests I've entered on the ESPN website. The fourth has yet to run.

The season kicked off with the Super Bowl Champions - Seattle - coming back from behind to beat the New England Patriots 13-10.

Seattle's QB1, Sam Darnold, was injured early in the game resulting in Drew Lock coming on to spare the home team's blushes.

I had Seattle to win in the straight up pick 'em contest entries. However, the Patriots +3.5 was my selection for the spread entry.

Yes, I consider it a fluke of sorts. A win is a win is a win, though.

Betting On The Showdown in Oz

Next up is the LA Rams versus San Francisco 49ers from Melbourne, Australia. I wrote a lot about it in THIS POST from last week.  I have the 49ers to win straight up and cover the +3.5 spread.

My fourth ESPN contest will kick in with this game because I have San Francisco as one of the five plays.

I find myself on the side which believes the 49ers have made the correct approach to the game by landing in Australia close to a week before the game. 

My theory contradicts the Rams' approach of arriving a little over twenty-four hours before kick off. 

Fallout From 49ers/Rams Travel Schedule

A lot has been made of the two methods. Even if my opinion turns out to be the losing one, both teams' returns to the USA will also make for an intriguing diagnosis. As I noted in Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026, the 49ers' Week 2 game will be played at home in a Sunday afternoon while the Rams have a home fixture against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football.

The Rams then have to travel to Denver for Week 3's Sunday Night Football. San Francisco would have played earlier that day with a home visit from the Arizona Cardinals.

I cannot shake off the thought that the Australia approaches, and the schedules that follow for both teams, are a test by the NFL to see which method works best for the future of NFL games Down Under.

We're certain to find some things out over the next three-to-four weeks. Good or bad.

Manningcast Schedule For The 2026 NFL Season

Peyton and Eli Manning have revealed the 2026/27 schedule for their famous Manningcast.

The NFL legends will return with their talk show which is simulcasted alongside Monday Night Football games on ESPN TV in the USA and available on the premium NFL GamePass package here in the UK.

Twelve games will get the Manning treatment this season. It all starts with this coming Monday's meeting between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs that will close out Week 1. 

Speaking of closing out - the final Manningcast of its sixth season will air live from the Super Bowl on February 14th. The brothers have never covered the big game in this fashion before. That's likely because ESPN has the rights to air Super Bowl LXI - a first for the forty-seven year old broadcaster.

Manningcast Schedule for 2026/27

Here are all of the games Peyton and Eli Manning will watch, as part of the Manningcast, in 2026 and beyond.

Week 1 - Denver Broncos @ Kansas City Chiefs (September 14)

Week 2 - NY Giants @ LA Rams (September 21)

Week 4 - Atlanta Falcons @ New Orleans Saints (October 5)

Week 5 - Buffalo Bills @ LA Rams (October 12)

Week 7 - Dallas Cowboys @ Philadelphia Eagles (October 26)

Week 8 - Chicago Bears @ Seattle Seahawks (November 2)

Week 10 - LA Chargers @ Baltimore Ravens (November 16)

Week 11 - Cincinnati Bengals @ Washington Commanders  (November 23)

Week 13 - Dallas Cowboys @ Seattle Seahawks (December 7)

Week 15 - New England Patriots @ Kansas City Chiefs (December 21)

Week 17 - Houston Texans @ Green Bay Packers (January 4)

Super Bowl Sunday (February 14)

When did the Manningcast launch?

The Manningcast first launched at the start of the 2021 NFL season. Peyton and Eli covered the Las Vegas Raiders versus Baltimore Ravens game which ended with the former winning 33-27 in overtime. 

The guests for that game were Charles Barkley, Ray Lewis, Travis Kelce and Russell Wilson.

The most famous Manningcast guest

The most famous guest to ever appear on the Manningcast is arguably George W. Bush.

The 43rd President of the United States appeared in Week 11 of the 2025 season when the Mannings covered the Dallas Cowboys' visit to Las Vegas.  The road team won 33-16.

The Picks Are Being Picked

It's that time of the year.

My friend sent across the lines for the NFL handicapping contest we play in. I'm now looking through Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026 before sending him my selections.

It still seems surreal to be using my very own book to handicap the games. 

Just like last year, every single pick I make will be made using Taylor's Annual. That approach turned in a positive strike rate of 55.2%. I obviously hope to do better than that.

I also intend to play in some of the ESPN contests. Especially the pick 'em game.

One more sleep!