Heading into Week 3 of the NFL season, bettors have taken their stand with a group of interestingly priced favorites.
Key Takeaways
- The Packers, Cowboys, Eagles, and Chiefs are taking a lot of the action heading into the weekend.
- The Lions and Cardinals are two popular moneyline underdogs this week.
- Bettors are back on overs, especially in Cowboys-Bears and Lions-Vikings.
More than a handful of teams are without their starting quarterbacks, and winless teams are facing bad playoff odds this week, so bettors are navigating a lot of unknowns. It’s no surprise that both BetMGM and ESPN BET highlighted Packers-Browns and Cowboys-Bears as heavy-action contests.
“Cowboys-Bears is currently our most bet game on the slate, as action has flipped the line from Bears -1.5 to Cowboys -1.5 on the road as of Friday, with two-thirds of tickets and over 75% of handle coming in on Dallas,” said Adrian Horton, ESPN BET’s senior director of North American trading. “Packers-Browns is also one of our most bet games of the weekend, though in an even more lopsided fashion as nearly 90% of bets and handle have come in on Green Bay at -7.5.”
The Packers, who opened the week in third on the odds list to win the Super Bowl, are the most-bet team by tickets at BetMGM, sitting as 8.5-point favorites over the Browns. Green Bay has 68% of the tickets and 56% of the handle. The Cowboys are the second-most-bet team with 83% of the handle and 72% of the tickets.
“Popular action in Week 3 is on the Chiefs seeking their first win, the Cowboys their second, and the Colts and Packers for their third,” BetMGM trading manager Christian Cipollini said. “Each of these teams covering would be great outcomes for bettors, and the book is hoping for an upset or at least an underdog to cover.”
Backing undefeateds
The Colts are another intriguing team coming off to a 2-0 start behind the hot hand of quarterback Daniel Jones. They hit the road as 4-point favorites at Tennessee and are getting the most handle of any team so far this week at BetMGM.
DraftKings has seen a lesser percentage of money on Indy (-4.5), but the Colts are getting 73% of the spread tickets and 91% of the moneyline handle.
ESPN BET has received heavy action on another early Sunday game when the Los Angeles Rams visit the Philadelphia Eagles in a showdown of 2-0 teams.
“In a playoff rematch, the Eagles are getting nearly 60% of spread tickets and handle to keep the line at -3.5 when they host the Rams on Sunday,” Horton said.
BetMGM has seen the opposite, with the Rams getting 80% of the handle and 61% of the tickets.
| Week 3 Game | DraftKings Handle | BetMGM Handle | ESPN BET Handle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packers-Browns | GB (-8.5) 77% | GB (-8.5) 56% | GB (-7.5) 90% |
| Jets-Buccaneers | NYJ (+7) 84% | NYJ (+7) 51% | TB (-6.5) 88% |
| Falcons-Panthers | ATL (-5.5) 83% | ATL (-5.5) 58% | CAR (+5.5) 64% |
| Rams-Eagles | LAR (+3.5) 69% | LAR (+3.5) 80% | PHI (-3.5) 58% |
| Colts-Titans | IND (-4.5) 65% | IND (-4) 83% | IND (-4.5) 61% |
| Raiders-Commanders | LV (+3.5) 52% | LV (+3.5) 52% | LV (+3.5) 57% |
| Steelers-Patriots | PIT (-1.5) 63% | PIT (-1.5) 85% | PIT (-1.5) 72% |
| Bengals-Vikings | CIN (+3) 74% | MIN (-3) 61% | CIN (+2.5) 51% |
| Texans-Jaguars | HOU (+1.5) 67% | HOU (+1.5) 62% | HOU (+1.5) 70% |
| Saints-Seahawks | SEA (-7.5) 51% | NO (+7.5) 73% | NO (+7.5) 54% |
| Broncos-Chargers | LAC (-2.5) 88% | LAC (-3) 54% | LAC (-2.5) 75% |
| Cowboys-Bears | DAL (-1.5) 77% | DAL (-1.5) 83% | DAL (-1.5) 67% |
| Cardinals-49ers | SF (-3) 69% | SF (-3) 86% | SF (-2.5) 83% |
| Chiefs-Giants | KC (-6) 84% | KC (-6.5) 72% | KC (-6.5) 66% |
| Lions-Ravens | BAL (-4.5) 70% | BAL (-4.5) 57% | BAL (-4.5) 88% |
Sunday night desperation
Only six teams since 1979 have started an NFL season 0-3 and still made the playoffs, so there’s going to be a lot of desperation across the league this week.
A pair of 0-2 teams square off in the Sunday evening contest as the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are looking to jump-start their season against a Giants team coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Cowboys.
Bettors are already loading up on the more proven commodity. Kansas City has received 83% of the handle at -6 and 70% of the bets. At -6.5, the Chiefs are the second most-bet team by handle at BetMGM, which has seen 67% of the tickets and 72% of the money come in on the favorite.
Get your ML underdogs
None of BetMGM’s top five most-bet underdogs by tickets this week are involved in any of the games previously mentioned, meaning the Cowboys, Colts, Packers, and Chiefs looked locked in to be the most important games for the sportsbooks.
The teams that bettors do think can pull off a plus-money win in Week 3 include the Lions (+195) at Baltimore on Monday night. The most-bet underdogs in the early slate Sunday are the Bengals, who begin life without QB Joe Burrow at +125 against the Vikings. That game’s spread has bounced around from -2.5 to -3.5 all week at ESPN BET.
The 2-0 Cardinals (+135) are also popular underdogs. They play a 49ers team that is dominating the spread handles at several sportsbooks. The Texans (+105) at Jacksonville and the Patriots (+110) versus the Steelers are both slight underdogs on the spread and getting heavy action on the moneyline.
Interesting splits
Buccaneers-Jets is setting up to be a game to keep an eye on at DraftKings. The Bucs (-6.5) are getting 64% of the handle, but the Jets, who are starting Tyrod Taylor at quarterback with Justin Fields out, have taken 85% of the bets. There’s a similar split at BetMGM, but it’s the Jets with the majority of the handle, and the Bucs and a banged-up Baker Mayfield are getting more tickets.
Bettors aren’t sure what to make of Raiders-Commanders. Washington announced Friday that it’ll be without injured starting QB Jayden Daniels, leaving Marcus Mariota to face one of his told teams. At DraftKings, 54% of the handle is on the Raiders (+2.5), but 59% of the bets have come in on the Commanders, who are also getting the majority of both on the moneyline. That could shift through the weekend.
Sticking to overs
A week after bettors smashed and hit on a plethora of overs, two of BetMGM’s top five most-bet totals are going that direction. The most popular one is Cowboys-Bears over 50.5, followed by Lions-Ravens over 53.5 on Sunday night. Bettors also like Bengals-Vikings to go over 42.5, but they’re leaning toward Texans-Jags under 44 and Chiefs-Giants under 45 at BetMGM.
Nine of ESPN BET’s 10 most-bet totals are overs, including Rams-Eagles, Packers-Browns, and Steelers-Patriots.
Touchdown opportunity?
Fantasy football enthusiasts are loving Colts tight end Tyler Warren, and so are bettors this week at BetMGM. He has the most-bet player prop by tickets with over 47.5 receiving yards (-110). Mayfield over 1.5 touchdowns is a popular wager at ESPN BET.
The most-bet anytime touchdown scorer so far this week at BetMGM is tight end Luke Musgrave (+275), who will get a big opportunity with Green Bay starter Tucker Kraft expected to miss the game. Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, Kenneth Walker, and Dak Prescott are other popular picks in that market.
