NFL Survivor pool, Week 7: Strategy and safe, value, trap picks

We’re officially one third of the way through the 2021 NFL season. The NFL opens Week 7 with the Broncos and Browns facing off on Thursday Night Football. It closes on Monday Night Football with the Seahawks hosting the Saints. In between, the two big notable Sunday matchups are Chiefs-Titans and Bengals-Ravens.

With the week getting underway, it’s time to get ready for your NFL Survivor pools. You’re welcome to just take the team favored by the most points this weekend, but there is strategy to consider if you want to survive to the end. DK Nation is here to help with a look at safe choices, value choices, and potential traps.

DK Nation is here to help with a look at safe choices, value choices, and potential traps. Last week saw favorites getting a whole lot wins, but we also had a notable upset with the Jaguars beating the Dolphins. We added Dolphins-Jaguars to last week’s picks to avoid and hopefully you skipped on them.

Safest picks

Rams over Lions
Buccaneers over Bears
Cardinals over Texans

These will be three of the most popular picks for people looking to play it safe and move on. Upsets happen, but all three of these are as close to sure thing victories as we’ll see in a given week. Arizona probably has the most immediate value with no projected double digit spreads the rest of the season, at least for now.

Best value picks

Patriots over Jets

I’m not usually a fan of divisional picks, but this is your last best chance to use the Patriots. They get the Jets at home and New York is a pretty awful team.

Trap pick

Ravens over Bengals

The Ravens are a decent-sized favorite and playing some strong football. But the Bengals are a tough one, and this is the kind of divisional matchup I’d stay away from — as compared to Patriots-Jets above given how bad the Jets have been for stretches this season.