Kansas City Chiefs at San Francisco 49ers - 8/14/21 NFL Picks and Prediction

Kansas City’s defense was solid last season, holding opponents to an average of 22.6 ppg. The Chiefs defense will still be led by their defensive line stars in Chris Jones & Frank Clark who look to have bounce back seasons after dealing with injuries last season. Kansas City invested their 2nd round pick in LB Nick Bolton who has high expectations. Kansas City will be returning their outstanding free safety in Tyrann Mathieu and hope for continued improvement with both Charvarius Ward & L’Jarius Sneed.

San Francisco came into last season with high expectations, but their 2020 season was derailed early largely due to a ton of injuries to key players and the 49ers finished the regular season missing the playoffs with just a 6-10 record.

Offensively, San Francisco averaged just 23.5 ppg and after another injury and unproductive season by Jimmy Garoppolo, the 49ers traded up to draft their QB of the future in North Dakota State’s Trey Lance. Lance certainly looks like he is the QB of the future, however, with his lack of experience against NFL talent along with the fact he only played one game last season, the 49ers will most likely be rolling with Garoppolo until their forced to make a change. San Francisco has been led by their rushing attack in recent years and it will be interesting to see how it plays out this year as they have veterans in Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson Jr, & Wayne Gallman Jr, while also drafting RB’s in the draft in Trey Sermon & Elijah Mitchell. The 49ers have some talent at the receiver position led by TE George Kittle and WR’s Brandon Aiyuk & Deebo Samuel.

Defensively, San Francisco ended the season holding their opponents to 24.4 ppg and it will be interesting to see the changes in the 49ers defense after defensive coordinator Robert Saleh left to coach the New York Jets. San Francisco should be very strong on the defensive line, especially getting Nick Bosa back from injury and have one of the upcoming LB’s in the lead in Fred Warner. The secondary will look similar after resigning both K’Waun Williams 7 Jaquiski Tartt.

The Chiefs are 11-3-1 ATS in their last 15 games as an underdog, however, are just 2-9 ATS in their last 11 games overall. The 49ers are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 Saturday games, however, are just 2-6 ATS in their last 8 home games.

Kansas City is planning to play their starters for a couple of series which is bit scary considering their getting points, however, there will be a significant drop-off on the offensive end for the Chiefs when they come out. We should see plenty of QB action from both Jimmy Garoppolo & Trey Lance and as their depth on the offensive end is solid, especially at the RB position, I think the 49ers will fight back after an early Kansas City touchdown and do enough to cover this spread. Good Luck!