Eliminator power rankings: Use Cardinals or Lions in Week 5 - ESPN

ESPN Eliminator Challenge is one of the most fun games to play this NFL season. The rules are simple: pick one team, and as long as they win (or tie), you advance to the next round. If they lose, you are out. The caveat is you cannot pick the same team twice.

The theme for 2025 has been the lack of eliminations. Through four weeks, only one underdog of at least six points has won outright. That is the fewest through Week 4 since 1979.

Nearly 400,000 Eliminator Challenge entries remain intact entering Week 5, with only 64% of the field knocked out. In the big Circa Millions pool, only 34% of the field is eliminated.

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That means if you have saved some of the elite NFL teams — like this column has recommended — you are in better shape compared to your competitors. However, the top pick in Week 5 is a team already used in this space, the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals host the Tennessee Titans, who grade out as the worst team in the NFL according to ESPN Analytics, so there is no better spot to use Arizona than now.

Instead, if you are following the recommended plays in this article each week, we will finally burn a top team with the Detroit Lions. They are the biggest betting favorites of the week — their largest road favorite role since 1973 — and they also have the highest win probability according to models by both ESPN Analytics and Mike Clay. After the Lions and Cardinals, there is a big drop-off to the rest of the potential options.

Mike Clay's Eliminator Challenge cheat sheet

This might be the easiest No. 1 choice in this column all season. Every time the Titans go on the road against a competent opponent, that