NFL Picks Today | Best Football Betting Predictions

You can find free NFL expert picks here from our knowledgeable tipsters with these football predictions for today. We cover competitions based in North America. The NFL Picks being the most popular, these will start from pre-season with the NFL Futures predictions and run all the way through to Super Bowl LVII held in early February.

We also cover the college leagues. Meaning we have NCAA predictions and have recently added the AAF to the list of competitions added. The Alliance of American Football is better known as the AAF. It takes place after the NFL season has finished. As a result, you can get Football picks outside of the NFL season! Also, we cover the Canadian Football League (CFL). This gives fans of the league a chance to see who our tipsters are predicting in the CFL.

If you have any questions or would like to join in the discussions throughout the NFL season, then head over to the forum which has plenty of members sharing opinions over the course of the season. Alternatively, if you want to have a read of any of the blogs regarding this season in the NFL then our NFL bloggers have you covered with weekly blogs.

Who is predicted to win the 2023 Super Bowl? To see which team the NFL handicappers are predicting to win the super bowl, head over to the dedicated Super Bowl LVII betting picks page.

If you like wagering on other US Sports then why not check out the NBA Picks, NHL Picks and MLB Picks from OLBG's knowledgeable US Sports tipsters.

For all of the predictions on this page, whether it be NFL picks, NCAA predictions, CFL picks or AAF betting picks, they will all cover a total of nine different game day markets which will cover lines, player props and team props. The Futures picks will cover the season markets like Super Bowl winner, NFC Championship, AFC Championship, the 4 x NFC divisions, 4 x AFC divisions and Player Specials like Most Receiving Touchdowns, Most Season Sacks etc.

Football Lines

Money Line (ML): This is a straight win pick, backing either the home team or the away team to win. The majority of sports betting sites will include overtime to decide a winner. Money Line picks offer less risk than the Points Spread wager with the margin of victory not needed to be successful. If you are an underdog (also known as 'dog') bettor then single wagers on the Money Line odds may appeal if you fancy an upset with odds sometimes as high as +500 (5/1) available for the shock win. A $10 wager on a +500 'dog' pays $50. On the flip side, game favorites may be prohibitive odds with the sportsbooks. Single wagers on very short odds NFL favorites may not be your thing so combining multiple favs in parlays may be the way to go for a higher payout, for example a 4 team parlay may look like this:

• Buffalo Bills @ -250 (1.4 decimal odds)
• Los Angeles Rams @ -200 (1.5)
• Kansas City Chiefs @ -125 (1.8)
• New England Patriots @ -110 (1.91)

A $10 parlay on your 4 NFL selections if successful would pay (1.4 * 1.5 * 1.8 * 1.91) = $72. If you are new to wagering and unfamiliar with how the American Odds are displayed and calculated then check out our Parlay Wager Guide.

Points Spread: Also referred to as wagering 'Against The Spread' or abbreviated as 'ATS', one team is given a head start whilst the opposing team (Money Line favorite) is given points to make up. For example, the home team is set at -5.5, this means they have to win by 6+ points for the wager to be successful. If a team is set at +5.5, it means they can afford to lose by up to 5 points and the wager will still be successful.

Game Total: This is how many points will be scored in the game. So if the line is set at 36, for 'Over' to be successful there have to be 37+ points or no more than 35 for 'Under' to be successful. If it finishes with exactly 36 points then all wagers are refunded (referred to as a 'Push'). NFL tipsters may look at previous head to heads, current form, key offensive and defensive players who may be questionable for the game or on the injured reserved list before making their Game Total picks.

Player Props

First Touchdown Scorer: This will be the player being tipped to score the first touchdown of the game, the coin toss can be vital for this market with deciding which teams gets control of the ball first because the players from that team obviously get the first attempt at a touchdown. The coin toss may not only be the decisive factor in helping make your First Touchdown Scorer picks, the team's key offensive plays and drives may influence many NFL tipsters' predictions also bearing in mind the odds on offer. The most obvious choices like the Wide Receivers who are key targets from the Quarterback's passing plays or the running backs involved heavily when the offensive drives result in red zone plays on goal. The key players in the offensive teams who score regular touchdowns will be popular picks however the US Sportsbooks will price up the odds to match the likely popularity with the sportsbook players. You will find if the games are evenly matched that even the most likely First Touchdown Scorers can be priced around the +500 (5/1) odds tag.

Anytime Touchdown Scorer: The good factor for this wager is it could be a winner in the first minute whilst at the same time the wager will remain alive until the final play of the game. To be successful, the chosen player must score a TD at any point during the game. Top Wide Receivers and Running Backs who are the key targets for the Quarterback's offensive plays will be popular Anytime Touchdown Scorer picks however as mentioned with the First Touchdown Scorer predictions the sportsbooks will factor their popularity into the ATS odds. You can expect odds of anything from -200 (1.5) to -110 (1.91) for the most likely offensive players to score a Touchdown at anytime during the game.

Team Props

Double Result: Which side will be leading at half-time and then which side will be leading at full-time? That is what this market offers, if you fancy a side to comfortably win a match but the money line (ML) is short odds then this market can offer some value if you think that team will dominate the ball possession time and lead throughout the game.

Team Points 2-Way (Home & Away): This is similar to the 'Game Total' market but instead of wagering on under or over the total points in the game, you are wagering under or over the set lines for the home or away sides. Again, NFL tipsters will look for roster news like questionable players who may influence a team's ability to score or concede points at the average rate.

Winning Margin: This market you are backing either team to win along with the margin of their victory, for example, if the Saints are playing the Chargers and you think the Saints will win but not by a touchdown or more then the selection would be 'Saints by 1-6 Points', the options are available for both teams with winning brackets coming in increments of six points, ie 1-6, 7-14, 13-18 and so on.

Each event set to take place is listed above with the best wager highlighted. This is the outcome that has received the most picks from our tipsters.

You can see the number of NFL tipsters who are supporting the outcome, compared to the total number of picks on the market. This gives you the percentage of NFL picks supporting the outcome. This percentage along with the current odds are used together to generate a 'Value Rating'. Displayed as a five-star rating, this is a guide to how much value there is for the pick.

Whatever you decide to wager on, you can pick up some great free bets if you want to try out some new legal sportsbooks. We have particularly good lists of NJ sportsbook promos and Michigan sportsbook promos.

Head over to the best football tipsters page to see which of our tipsters have live NFL picks and are performing well. In addition to viewing their live NFL predictions you can view their performance stats including Annual Profit, Monthly Profit/Loss Trends, Annual Strike Rate, Current Month's and Week's Profit.

If you want to check out a more detailed list of the NFL tipsters on OLBG then head over to the American Football Tipster Table. You can view three sections on here, see who is having a current profitable month. Also, who has shown a profit over the past 6 or 12 months. You can sort the table, meaning you can view best Level Stake Profits (LSP), Return on Investment (ROI) or by Strike Rate. Additionally, you can sort by the number of profitable months to find consistent tipsters.

For the best performing tipsters on other US Sports check out the Best Basketball Tipsters for the latest NBA picks, the Best Ice Hockey Tipsters for the latest NHL Picks and the Best Baseball Tipsters for MLB Picks.

A question that is regularly asked is How often do NFL favorites win? so here are some statistics to help you find the answer to that question.

From the beginning of the 2015-16 season up until the end of the 2021-22 season, the win percentage of favorites ranged from as little as 63% to as high as 70%, and the 2017-18 season is the highest win percentage of 70% and both the 2015-16 & 2021-22 seasons having the worst record of 63% and during that 2017-18 season, home favorites had a 72% win rate.

The following table shows the favorite and underdog statistics, only games with an outcome are included and only games when there was a favorite are included:

Top Five Performing Favourites

For games between the 2015-16 and 2021-22 seasons, these are the top five performing teams when they are favorites to win:

• Green Bay Packers (73-95 77% - 83% Home Field)
• Kansas City Chiefs (80-108 74% - 75% Home Field)
• New England Patriots (89-1021 74% - 78% Home Field)
• Houston Texans (37-51 73% - 89% on the Road)
• Indianapolis Colts (48-67 72% - 73% Home Field)

There are two teams who fall under the 50% win rate mark when favorites, St Louis Rams only have a 36% win rate (4-11) and Jacksonville Jaguars have a 46% win rate (16-35) so have not been the most reliable teams to wager on when favorites.

Is it better to bet on the underdog? In terms of 'Giant Killers', there are only two teams who have played over twenty-five games as the underdogs between the seasons that we are looking at and have gone on to win over 50% of those games as the dogs. The Kansas City Chiefs played 28 games and won 15 of those, that is a win rate of 54% as the underdogs whilst the Pittsburgh Steelers have won 25 from 47 games, a win rate of 53%, two very good figures against the favorites so it is worth watching out for either of those two being picked by our expert NFL tipsters when they are the underdogs.

Here's a month by month look at the NFL year, listing the key events and highlighting when to expect NFL futures picks for the new NFL season ahead and NFL match predictions during the active months of the regular season and post season play offs and right through to the Super Bowl.

January

• Regular Season Concludes: The 32 NFL teams across the 8 divisions in the AFC and NFC complete their final regular season fixtures in early January. Fourteen teams, the four divisional winners and three wild card qualifiers from each conference make it through to the end of season play offs. The six wild card teams will be those who finished with the best win/loss records despite not winning their division. The seven AFC teams and NFC teams are seeded 1 to 8 respectively in their conference, the seeding is determined by number 1 being the divisional winner with the best win/loss/tie record, numbers 2, 3 & 4 being the remaining divisional winners and numbers 5, 6 & 7 being the wild card qualifiers with the seeding being decided by best win/loss/tie record and head to head results (if needed).
• Wild Card Weekend: The Wild Card weekend closely follows the regular season end with three of the AFC Divisional winners taking on the three AFC teams receiving a wild card place and three of the NFC Divisional winners taking on the three NFC teams receiving a wild card. The AFC team and NFC team finishing with the best win/loss record and winning their respective division receive an automatic bye into the Divisional Play Off round. The three wild card pairings for both the AFC & NFC are shown in the table below, the home team in each pairing is the best seeded.

• Divisional Play Off Round: The six successful teams from the Wild Card Weekend make it through to the Divisional Play Offs Round and they are joined by the number 1 seeds from the AFC & NFC who received a Wild Card Weekend bye for finishing the regular season with the best win/loss/tie record. The pairings for the Divisional Play Offs are shown in the table below, the lowest remaining seed plays @ the best seed and so on:

• Conference Championship Weekend: One step away from the Super Bowl for the AFC & NFC Divisional Play Off Round winners who now meet to decide the NFC Championship and AFC Championship winners. The best rated seed remaining in both conferences will be @ home. Who will make it through to contest the Vince Lombardi Trophy ? See what the best performing OLBG tipsters predict over on the Best NFL Tipsters page.

February

• Pro Bowl Game: Usually takes place the weekend before the Super Bowl and is an All-Star Pro Bowl game featuring an AFC team against a team representing the NFC. Participating players are invited to play via nominations by fellow NFL colleagues, players, coaches and NFL fans voting on the NFL website. Players selected to appear in the All Star Pro Bowl game who subsequently feature in the following weekend's Super Bowl do not participate in the Pro Bowl game in case of injury. A coach is selected from each conference to manager their respective conference All Star team.
• Super Bowl: The most prestigious NFL game in the USA is the pinnacle of the NFL season with the AFC champions meeting the NFC champions to see who will lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy and be crowned Super Bowl winners.

March

• NFL Player Trading: The dust has settled after the Super Bowl which draws the NFL season to close and March signals the annual 'clear out' and NFL team roster changes with the Player trading period commencing. Some players will become 'Free Agents' if contacts are not renewed and 'trades' are also agreed between teams who may give up 'NFL Draft' round selections which can be for a number of upcoming seasons to secure a prime target. For example, at the time of writing (May 2022) four experienced Quarterbacks (Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson) have been the subject of completed trades in exchange for NFL Draft Round Selections over the next few seasons. 'Player Trades' also take place by the way of a straight exchange without any Draft Selections as part of the deal.

April

• NFL Draft: The eagerly awaited annual Draft Selection process is an exciting time for NFL fans to see if their team can secure a potential future NFL Hall of Fame player who may revive the team's fortunes. The NFL Draft is the primary opportunity for NFL teams to recruit new players to their roster, players on the draft must have finished high school at least three years ago and the majority will have played College Football although this is not a prerequisite. Players can also be selected from the Canadian Football League (CFL) and Arena Football League (AFL), leagues which are covered in the NFL picks on OLBG. The event takes places over three days with a round taking place every day, the order of picks is determined in descending order by how well the 32 teams performed the previous season. The team with the worst record will have the 1st pick (considered to be the best choice) and the team winning the Super Bowl will have the final pick (32nd) of the round. Teams can trade allocated NFL Draft Round Selections as mentioned above. To see the most recent annual draft head over to the official NFL website.

May

• New Season Schedule Released: The fixture schedule for the upcoming NFL regular season is released, some notable dates will be announced in advance of the full 18 week regular season schedule. These include the NFL International Series which will see games taking place across the pond in London (NFL London Series) at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley in October, plus there will be a new country added to the roster for the first time in November 2022 with a game taking place in Germany.

July

• Preseason Training Camp: Teams tend to begin their preseason training around late July.

August

• Pro Football Hall of Fame Game: Preseason practice matches usually commence in early August along with the Pro Football Hall of Fame game which is an annual NFL exhibition game in Ohio. The match coincides with the NFL Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies. The participating teams are announced around Super Bowl week (February) along with the newest names to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

September

• New Regular Season Commences: Early September sees the start of the new NFL regular season games with the reigning Super Bowl winners kicking off the new season. For a full list of the NFL season schedule head over to the official NFL website.

October

• NFL International Series: Six NFL teams travel across the pond in October with three scheduled NFL regular season games taking place in London at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley. The NFL London Series grows in popularity year on year with high demand for match tickets resulting in fast sell outs at the Box Office.

November

• NFL International Series: For the first time in November 2022, European NFL fans will have the opportunity to watch a regular season NFL game in Munich, Germany. 
• Thanksgiving Day: A regular slot in the NFL regular season schedule now sees three NFL games screened live on Thanksgiving Day.