NFL Week 7 Survivor Pool Picks: Raiders Thrive After Bye, Patriots Dominate Bears on Monday in Top Predictions

With each passing week in the NFL, the Survivor Pools get lighter and lighter as more entries have been eliminated. 

BetSided’s Reed Wallach is still alive (even though he’s already won our pool), winning in six straight weeks! Can he keep it going this week? 

Last week, two major favorites (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers) were upset, leaving two of our editors on the wrong side of those games. That being said, we’ve allowed all the losers in our pool to still share a pick each week.

So, if you’ve made it this far, congrats. But it only gets tougher. Here’s where the BetSided team is leaning in Week 7:

NFL Week 6 Survivor Pool Pick Results

• Reed Wallach: Los Angeles Rams (W)
• Iain MacMillan: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (L)
• Ben Heisler: Green Bay Packers (L)
• Peter Dewey: Los Angeles Rams (W)

NFL Week 7 Survivor Pool Picks

Las Vegas Raiders

Both of these teams are coming off a bye, but I find myself starting to buy in on the Las Vegas Raiders moving forward. The team is top 10 in EPA/Play on offense and will be facing a Houston Texans team that has dug itself holes week after week, ranking 30th in EPA/Play. 

The Raiders may be 1-4, but that includes a close loss to both the Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs on the road by a combined eight points and a chaotic loss to the Arizona Cardinals in overtime.

The Raiders offense is starting to find its rhythm under first year head coach Josh McDaniels and a week to prepare for a hapless Texans team should do wonders to get them set for a possible playoff push with some improved variance. – Reed Wallach

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

A good survivor strategy moving forward might just be to fade the Carolina Panthers as many weeks as you can. It worked for me the past two weeks, taking the San Francisco 49ers and then the Los Angeles Rams, so why not do it again? 

The Buccaneers looked bad in a loss to the Steelers in Week 6, but this would be a big bounce back spot for Tom Brady and company. The Panthers, with their offense in shambles, is going to struggle heavily against this stout Tampa Bay defense, so I think this should be a sweat free survivor win for us. – Iain MacMillan

It's probably a good Survivor strategy to just pick whoever gets the pleasure of facing Carolina that week.

Tampa Bay gets the fortunate matchup this week and should decimate the Panthers coming off a shocking loss to Pittsburgh.Matt Rhule's rotten stench is all over the Panthers' franchise, and it'll take quite some time for the cleaning crew to fix the franchise.

Carolina is 1-12 in its last 13 games, covering the spread just once in that span while ranking 29th in yards per play (4.8) and 27th in points per game (17.2).

Don't overthink this. Back Tom Brady to get back on track as the Bucs' defense smothers a pathetic Panthers offense. -- Joe Summers

New England Patriots

The obvious chalk play is to take the Buccaneers over the dumpster-fire that is the Panthers right now as 10.5-point road favorites. However, with the Patriots playing as good of football as we've seen from them in years on both sides of the ball, I'll zag over to them and sweat it out on Monday Night Football.

Chicago has serious issues in protecting Justin Fields, and if the lackluster Washington Commanders can hold them to just seven points and an 0-for night in the red zone, I worry about what the Patriots can do to them in primetime at home.

Rhamondre Stevenson should also run all over Chicago's front. Granted, the Bears have been solid defensively overall this season, but they rank 27th out of 32 in Football Outsiders' Run DVOA rankings.

Chicago may somehow keep it closer than most expect, but I can't fathom how the Bears pull off the upset this week. -- Ben Heisler

We’re going to end the week with our survivor pick. 

The New England Patriots welcome the Chicago Bears in, and I have absolutely no faith in the Bears. Chicago’s offense looks out of whack. It has no passing game, Justin Fields is being mismanaged, and there is no direction.

As for the Patriots, Rhamondre Stevenson is becoming a workhorse back and Bailey Zappe looks even better than Mac Jones at the beginning of the season. With home field advantage and the complimentary football working perfectly, the Pats are the play to make. – Donnavan Smoot

The Patriots play in a tough division, so I don’t see many better times to use them than against this Bears team on Monday night. 

Chicago has failed Justin Fields with a terrible offensive line and no receivers, and I can’t imagine things going well against a Bill Belichick coached defense.

New England’s offense has really turned things around with Bailey Zappe under center, and I think their rushing offense should have a field day against a porous Bears front. – Peter Dewey

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.