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NFL Week 3 Odds, Picks & Predictions: Best Futures Bets (2023)

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With this week’s installment of future bet recommendations, I’m bringing three more positions to add to the portfolio. The first play is a season-long win total under on the Browns that I believe to be grossly mispriced based on their early season performances combined with the horrible news of the injury to Nick Chubb.

The second play is a position on the Rams to make the playoffs in a really weak NFC, especially with how they have played without the 2021 OPOY Cooper Kupp in the fold. The last play is for the Buffalo Bills to win the AFC Championship, which is more specific to the book I have listed because they currently have the Bills as the fourth favorite in the AFC, with odds significantly longer than other books.

NFL Week 3: Best Futures Bets

Cleveland Browns Under 9.5 Wins (+120 @ DraftKings)

The Browns’ current O/U win total sits at 9.5, where it was prior to the season, except now we’re getting plus money on the under instead of the -130 or so that you would have paid in the preseason. What has changed since then? Nick Chubb suffered a season-ending injury on Monday night in a game where Deshaun Watson looked horrible for a second straight week (really, he’s looked horrible ever since he was suspended), even though some wanted to blame his Week 1 performance on the poor weather.

It’s not like this is the weaker NFC, either. The Browns play in arguably the toughest division in football. If I give them wins against the Colts, Cardinals, Texans and Bears, that only gets them to five wins, with their remaining games likely being coin-flip games or decisive underdogs. I don’t trust them to win five of those games, and frankly, I think giving them the aforementioned four wins is a little generous.

I was shocked to see that their win total did not move after the offensive performances combined with the loss of their best offensive weapon, and even more shocked to see that you had to pay juice to now bet the over.

Los Angeles Rams to Make the Playoffs – Yes (+280 @ Caesars)

People seem to have forgotten about this Rams team that won the Super Bowl just two seasons ago, so hop on the bandwagon now before it’s too late. The Rams already picked up an impressive road divisional against a reigning playoff team in Seattle Week 1, then looked the part in a home cover against the team many are picking to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl in the 49ers. They’ve done so without the services of Cooper Kupp, allowing receivers like Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell to build rapport with Matt Stafford, which will only help the explosiveness of this offense when Kupp returns.

Speaking of Stafford, a huge question mark coming into this season was his health after missing a large part of the 2022 season with his elbow injury, but he looks as healthy as he did in his Super Bowl winning season. Aside from the 49ers, Cowboys and Eagles, the NFC playoff picture figures to be wide open, and the Rams schedule is littered with winnable games. I would bet this number now with Joe Burrow’s health in question for their Monday Night game this week, especially before Kupp returns from injured reserve (IR).

Buffalo Bills to win the AFC Championship (+650 @ PointsBet)

I think we’re still getting some lingering value on the Bills for losing in Week 1 because this price is flat-out incorrect from PointsBet, who has the Bills as the fourth favorite to come out of the AFC at the moment. As I said in last week’s article (where I recommended a Bills future to win the AFC East), Buffalo played nearly the exact same game at the Jets last season in a loss, so that result wasn’t surprising to me at all, even after Aaron Rodgers went down. Buffalo bounced back nicely in Week 2, smoking the Raiders by 4 touchdowns, which is much more indicative of the team that they really are.

Kansas City has looked disjointed offensively in their first 2 matchups, the Ravens have once again already started to get bitten by the injury bug, and Bill Belichick just gave the NFL a heads-up on how to slow down the Miami passing attack on Sunday Night (not to mention the fragility of Tua at the QB position). Buffalo was the #1 team in the NFL in terms of DVOA in 2022, and their Week 1 loss, combined with Miami’s hot start, has created massive value to target the Bills in futures markets.

Make sure to check out our other best bets for Wednesday:

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