Picking the heaviest favorite of the week is often an NFL survivor pool strategy that keeps players around the longest. This year, it has resulted in the end of your NFL survivor picks each week. The largest favorite of the week has lost in all three weeks of the 2024 NFL schedule, so should that leave you hesitant on selecting the San Francisco 49ers with your Week 4 knockout pool picks? The 49ers are 10.5-point favorites against the New England Patriots, according to the latest Week 4 NFL odds, and are coming off a week in which they were responsible for a large chunk of players being eliminated from NFL knockout pools. The 49ers lost to the Rams, 27-24, despite being 6-point favorites last week.
The 49ers continue to have injury concerns with Christian McCaffrey (calf/Achilles) out and unknowns about Deebo Samuel (calf, questionable) and George Kittle (hamstring, will reportedly play), who both missed last week. Before finalizing any Week 4 NFL survivor picks, you need to see which team proven expert R.J. White is backing.
White has been SportsLine's No. 1 NFL against-the-spread expert over the last seven years, going 643-543-34 against the spread to put him up more than 46 units on those picks at SportsLine since 2017. He has also delivered a 56.7% hit rate on his Vegas contest picks over the last nine seasons and has two finishes in the money, including finishing 18th out of 2,748 entries back in 2017.
His advice 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, White correctly recommended to avoid the Bengals, who lost to the Patriots as 8.5-point favorites. Instead, White picked the Saints, who beat the Panthers by 37 points in the most lopsided game of the week. Then in Week 2, he avoided the Ravens, who lost to the Raiders as 8.5-point favorites, and instead backed the Texans, who defeated the Bears. He then advised to avoid Cincinnati again in Week 3, despite it being the heaviest favorites, and the Bengals would be upset by the Commanders.
Anyone who followed his advice avoided three of the biggest NFL upsets of the season and advanced in their NFL knockout pools.
Now, White has turned his attention to the latest Week 4 NFL odds and locked in his Week 4 survivor pool pick. You can only see who White is backing this week at SportsLine.
Top Week 4 NFL survivor pool predictions
In Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season, White is avoiding the Cardinals (-3.5, 49), even though they are a home favorite over a Commanders team coming off a short week. Picking against Washington was a popular NFL survivor pool strategy last week, but the Commanders became the 10th team to win a game despite entering as 5.5-point underdogs or more when they defeated the Bengals.
Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels completed 21 of 23 passes against the Bengals and the Cardinals have one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL this season. Arizona ranks last in completion percentage against (75.34%) while allowing the second-most yards per pass (8.2) in the NFL this season. The Cardinals struggled containing Josh Allen as a runner and a passer, as Allen had 39 yards on nine carries with two touchdowns. Given Arizona's struggles against the pass and with rushing quarterbacks this season, White suggests staying away from Arizona for Week 4 survivor pool picks. See which team to pick instead here.
How to make Week 4 NFL survivor pool picks
Instead, White is backing a team whose opponent could get "next to nothing" out of its quarterback. The time to pick this team is now, and you can only see the play over at SportsLine.
Which team is a must-back in your Week 4 NFL survivor pool? Visit SportsLine now to see which team carries you to victory in Week 4, all from the expert who avoided the Bengals in Weeks 1 and 3 the Ravens in Week 2, and is up almost 50 units on ATS picks.
