NFL picks, Week 7: Seahawks, Chargers, 49ers, and Chiefs all playing for division leads

It’s Week 7, nearly halfway through the season, and the NFC West finds itself with a one-game spread between all four teams. Bizarre football is afoot, and the San Francisco Trey Lanceless 49ers have traded much of next year’s draft for star running back Christian McCaffrey. The Los Angeles Rams are on bye and the Arizona Cardinals just won on Thursday, and that means the Seattle Seahawks, who are 5-point underdogs to the Los Angeles Chargers on DraftKings Sportsbook, could take a solo lead of the division with a win and a Niners loss.

Kansas City Chiefs at San Francisco 49ers - O/U 49 — 1:25 PM PT - FOX

Now that the Rams have revealed themselves for what they are this season, this will be the toughest opponent San Francisco will have faced this year. While the 49ers defense is legit, they held every opponent to 15 points or fewer until they ran into the surprisingly effective Atlanta Falcons. The Chiefs are even more high-powered, and Jimmy Garoppolo’s offense has been wildly inconsistent in attempting to score at least 20 points.

The 49ers defense blitzes among the least in the NFL, which is one of the more effective ways to counter Patrick Mahomes. They’re the best team in the league against the run, meaning it will be largely up to Mahomes creativity to move the ball.

Still, the arrival of McCaffrey early Friday morning doesn’t come with enough time to game plan for Kansas City with him much, and it’s a big ask for this team even at home to overcome a mediocre offense. They’ll score against a bad Chiefs defense for sure, but perhaps not enough.

The Pick: Over 49, Kansas City to cover as 1.5-point favorites.

Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Chargers - O/U 50.5 — 1:25 PM PT - Fox

Thursday Night only served to make Seattle’s win over the Cardinals more impressive. They’re back on the road against a Chargers team that struggled even more against the Denver Broncos defense than Geno Smith did in Week 1. The Seahawks have seemingly not lost a step transitioning from Rashaad Penny to Kenneth Walker III, and the defense took a massive step forward. If the changes on the line are duplicatable, this defense seems willing and able to progress as fast as its rookie corners progress, which is quite quickly. Seattle’s low score in Week 6 is indicative only of an uncharacteristically bad day in the red zone, as they kicked four field goals, but have typically been effective this season.

The Chargers have scored 24 or more in four of their six games, but haven’t beaten a team with more than two wins this season. Joey Bosa is still out, Keenan Allen is very questionable with a hamstring injury, and corner JC Jackson was benched for a portion of the game in Week 6.

This is the perfect game for the Seahawks the finally put both sides of the ball together against a good but largely untested opponent.

The pick: Under 50.5, with the Seahawks to cover, and win outright if you’re really feeling frisky.

With the way this week shaped up, the Seahawks-Chargers and Chiefs-49ers games both create scenarios where the division leads in the NFC and AFC West change hands by end of Sunday afternoon. Seattle goes on top with a win and a 49ers loss, while the Chargers take the AFC West lead with a win and a 49ers win.

Tallysight picks below:

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.