Week 6 will likely be trumpeted as one that ruined a lot of survivor pools, with the 49ers and Eagles losing as big favorites. However, those losses likely didn't have as much of an impact as you might think. Firstly, both teams were on the road, and veteran survivor participants know how dangerous it is to back teams on the road, even in seemingly unlosable games. Neither team made our top three last week, all of which won their games. One of those teams -- the Bills -- would've definitely taken a large chunk of survivor players down with them, as just over 20% of the entrants remaining in Circa Survivor last week had them.

Another reason the 49ers and Eagles shouldn't have been popular is their placement on the rest of the schedule. The time to use San Francisco was in Week 4 when they were home against Arizona, and if you got by with a different team, the 49ers are a clear option for Week 11 at home against the Buccaneers. In 20-week formats, they're also the only team that plays on both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it makes sense to hang onto them as an option for those weeks if you can.

The Eagles are also a clear option for the Christmas slate when they host the Giants, and they'll be at home against the Cardinals the following week. Even in 18-week formats, it makes sense to get to Christmas week with at least one of the Eagles or Chiefs, who will both be big favorites on Christmas Day, as the main slate that week doesn't offer much else worth trusting. We said last week that it made sense to save the Chiefs for that week rather than use them against the Broncos, and those who went with the Dolphins or Rams instead had nothing to worry about (despite slow starts for both teams).

When looking at your options for Week 7, it's important to project out the rest of the schedule (hence the point of this weekly column). It's also important to know the format of your pool, as Circa Survivor adds two standalone slates for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We might only get two favorites of more than a TD this week, but I would avoid using the Bills if you still have them available.

For starters, they're on the road this week, and we just got two examples of why not to trust road teams in survivor with the 49ers and Eagles last week. It's also a divisional matchup, and you never know what's going to happen in those games with teams that are very familiar with each other. There was some talk that the Giants found the Bills' offensive gameplan overly predictable, which contributed to Buffalo only scoring 14 points in that game, and even with New England's defensive injuries that could be in danger of happening again if the Bills don't go back to the drawing board a bit offensively. And the Bills defense is one I'm not trusting to make a lot of stops against most offenses with the injuries they have on every level. What is expected to be a rout could easily wind up a 16-14 type of loss in Foxborough.

Why listen to me? Well, I was 535-450-30 (+3532) on ATS picks over the last six years and even better with my top five picks each week, going 376-290-24 (56.5%) over the last eight years in the Westgate SuperContest.  While this doesn't involve picking against the spread, I do believe by applying the strategies I've developed to have long-term success on those picks to survivor pools, we'll be in the best position to outlast the competition.

Below, you'll find my top options for this week as well as a tiered set of options for every week over the rest of the season, including breakouts for the Thanksgiving/Black Friday and Christmas slates. Let's dig in.

What are the best options to use in survivor pools in Week 7? And which teams should be saved to use later in the season? ... Join SportsLine right now to see NFL Survivor Pool strategy from the expert who's 535-450-30 on ATS picks from 2017-22, returning $3,532 to $100 players!