2025 NFL Betting Guide: Best Futures Picks Before Week 1 Kickoff

With the NFL regular season kicking off this week, here are the five best futures bets for the upcoming season.

Joe Burrow (CIN) o33.5 passing TDs -125

Joe Burrow has only remained healthy in three of his five NFL seasons to this point, but when he does play at least 16 games in a season he’s never thrown for fewer than 34 touchdowns. Burrow bounced back from an injury ridden 2023 campaign with the best statistical season of his career in 2024, throwing 43 touchdowns and nine interceptions while falling just 82 yards shy of becoming the 10th QB in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards in a season.

As Burrow enters his prime with star receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins both contractually locked up for the next four seasons, betting on whether he will throw at least 34 touchdowns is essentially betting on whether or not he will stay healthy. While the Bengals’ offensive line isn’t in that elite class yet, they are far more serviceable than they were in the years they failed to protect Burrow, and thus, I believe Burrow will stay on his feet, on the field and out of the MRI machine.

As an aside, I actually believe Burrow will win the MVP this season (+600, third-best odds), but that play comes with a bit more uncertainty than betting on something we’ve already seen Burrow do thrice in his career.

Emeka Egbuka (TB) to win Offensive Rookie of the Year +1600

While super-prospects Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jeremiah Smith overshadowed Emeka Egbuka during their respective times at Ohio State, it was Egbuka who left Columbus as the Buckeyes’ all-time leading receptions and receiving yards leader.

Egbuka is going into perhaps the most pass-happy system in the NFL next season and will be catching passes from a quarterback in Baker Mayfield who is in the midst of a renaissance after throwing for 4,500 yards and four touchdowns last season. Egbuka will also benefit from the fact that fellow Bucs receivers Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan will miss the first handful of weeks in the regular season, leaving the rookie Egbuka and an aging Mike Evans as the primary targets for Mayfield.

All reports out of Buccaneers camp indicated that Egbuka had the presence and playmaking skills of a veteran receiver, and Mayfield even compared the rookie to Lions All-Pro Amon-Ra St. Brown. Chris Godwin put up elite production last season in the role Egbuka will be stepping into at least to start the year, and I expect Egbuka to start turning heads immediately to give his campaign a hot start.

Nik Bonitto (DEN) o9.5 sacks -105

Denver Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto emerged as one of the best defensive players in the NFL last season, and it still feels like he’s being generally disregarded in potential Defensive Player of the Year talks. This line of o/u 9.5 sacks even feels a bit disrespectful, even if his position on the outside gives him fewer pass rush opportunities than a traditional edge rusher.

As a 25-year-old in his third NFL season in 2024, Bonitto recorded 13.5 sacks while starting in 15 of his 17 appearances with the Broncos. Despite making just four starts in 15 appearances during his sophomore NFL season in 2023, Bonitto tallied eight sacks and 13 tackles for loss.

Bonitto will start all seventeen games this season and see more action than he ever has on a professional football field, so I’m expecting that sack number to be closer to what it was last season, if not even higher. I certainly don’t see a 4+ sack regression from a player entering their prime.

Most Passing Touchdowns In The Regular Season by an individual player: Over 41.5 -115

A somewhat popular narrative that took hold last season was that the growing usage of the two high safeties on defense was ruining football and handicapping the downfield passing game. Sure, there may have been some lower scores, but it didn’t seem to affect quarterback production in the slightest.

For the first time since the 2020 regular season, three quarterbacks threw for at least 40 touchdowns, with Joe Burrow’s 43 leading the league. The NFL’s leader in passing touchdowns has thrown at least 41 touchdowns in four of the past five seasons and six of the last eight.

I believe we’ll see both Burrow and Lamar Jackson eclipse the 40 touchdowns mark again this season, and it isn’t far fetched to believe that players like Josh Allen or Jared Goff could join them given the expected production of their respective offenses.

Baltimore Ravens to win Super Bowl +650

The Kansas City Chiefs can’t rule the AFC forever, and this year feels like somewhat of a changing of the guard in terms of who the most feared team in the conference is. While the Chiefs went 15-2 and appeared in a third consecutive Super Bowl, you could sense their death grip on the league loosening as they survived close game after close game before eventually imploding against the Eagles.

The Ravens have the best player in the NFL in Lamar Jackson and Jackson has perhaps the best supporting cast in the NFL surrounding him. Derek Henry was nearly a 2,000 yard rusher, in large part because of the offense that Jackson does such a masterful job of controlling, the the team finally received legitimate wide receiver production from Zay Flowers and Rashad Bateman last season.

The Ravens should have no problem winning a competitive AFC North and that experience against what is likely the toughest division in the NFL this season will only bode well for Baltimore in the postseason. Jackson appears to be more motivated than ever based on his comments and reports out of training camp, and I believe 2025 is the season that he and the Ravens finally change the narrative surrounding their inability to perform in the postseason.