NFL Week 15 Odds: Building the Best Parlays from Early Spreads, Lines and Over/Unders
Week 15 is slated to kick off with the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night. While that particular game isn't a potential playoff preview, the upcoming schedule will feature several pivotal games.
Saturday's three-game slate, for example, will feature six teams—the Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos and Detroit Lions—that are firmly in the playoff mix.
Bye weeks are over, and all 32 teams will be in action this week. That means managers will have several wagering opportunities throughout the weekend. Below, we'll dive into some of the standout matchups to identify three distinct parlays to consider based on the early lines and over/unders.
Check the latest lines at DraftKings.
Three-Game Parlay
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Raiders -3 Versus Chargers
Falcons -3 at Panthers
49ers -14 at Cardinals
Yes, we're picking the Las Vegas Raiders, who failed to even get a field goal, to win by three points over the Los Angeles Chargers. There are two big reasons why.
The first is that Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert suffered a fractured finger on his throwing hand on Sunday and isn't expected to play in Week 14. The Raiders defense has been sneaky good under interim coach Antonio Pierce, and that trend will likely continue against L.A.
Secondly, the Chargers pass defense has been a significant liability for the Chargers. Las Vegas had too many drops and Aidan O'Connell misfires to outlast the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14—they lost 3-0—but that shouldn't be as much of a problem against a Chargers defense allowing 6.5 net yards per pass attempt.
We're also backing the Atlanta Falcons to win by at least a field goal because, well, they're playing the Carolina Panthers.
The Panthers' 2023 season has been a mess. Rookie quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young has not developed much, if at all, since he first took the field in Week 1. Much of the offensive coaching staff was fired along with head coach Frank Reich, and those offensive struggles have not dissipated.
Secondly, the weakness of the Panthers defense is against the run. Atlanta should be able to move the ball as long as it leans into Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier and the ground game.
Carolina has just one win on the season and it hasn't lost a game by less than a field goal. That streak will stay alive against the visiting Falcons.
The San Francisco 49ers have a much larger line to cover, but they should get it done against an Arizona Cardinals team with little to play for.
The Cardinals have had two weeks to prepare, but the 49ers simply have too much talent on both sides of the ball for Arizona to keep up. San Francisco won by 19 points in the first meeting of 2023, and the second should yield a similar result.
Single-Game Parlay
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49ers -14 at Cardinals
49ers -950 (bet $1050 to win $100) to Win
49ers and Cardinals Over 48 Points
While the Cardinals have little more than pride to play for in Week 14, this is an important game for the 49ers. San Francisco shares a 10-3 record with the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
The 49ers have beaten both the Eagles and the Cowboys, but they cannot afford a loss if they want to secure the NFC's No. 1 seed.
San Francisco should win, and with Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk all available, it should win convincingly. The big question is whether the 49ers score enough to push the points total to the over.
The 49ers and Seattle Seahawks only combined for 44 points in Week 14. However, Seattle did a great job of making it a feisty, physical game. While San Francisco racked up 527 yards of offense, it also had an interception in Seahawks territory plus three punts near midfield.
Expect a Cardinals defense that has allowed an average of 25.4 points per game to offer less resistance to San Francisco's surging offense.
Even if the 49ers take their foot off the proverbial pedal, they're likely to approach 40 points once again. Expect Kyler Murray, James Conner and the Cardinals offense to produce enough points—even if they come in garbage time—to hit the over.
The first meeting, which didn't feature Murray under center for Arizona, had 51 combined points.
Over/Under Parlay
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49ers and Cardinals Over 48 Points
Bears and Browns Over 38 Points
Ravens and Jaguars Over 44 Points
While the 49ers and Cardinals game might not be a true back-and-forth battle, we could see exactly that in Cleveland this week.
The Browns seem to have stumbled into a viable starting quarterback with Joe Flacco, who topped 300 passing yards with three touchdowns in Week 14. Cleveland's defense, meanwhile, simply isn't the same shutdown unit it was early in the season.
Over the last three games, the Browns have surrendered 29, 36 and 27 points.
The Chicago Bears resurgent defense might actually be the bigger threat in this matchup. Chicago's secondary was simply superb against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, allowing 13 total points and pitching a second-half shutout.
However, the Browns are at home and should get just enough from its revamped passing attack to keep the scoring relatively high.
Bears quarterback Justin Fields, meanwhile, has morphed into a tremendous dual-threat signal-caller and should have as much success as quarterbacks like Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford and Trevor Lawrence have recently had against Cleveland.
Lawrence threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns against Cleveland on Sunday, albeit with three interceptions. He should have a similar, if slightly less-productive outing against the Baltimore Ravens this week.
The Ravens defense, another strong unit early in the season, just gave up 37 points to the Los Angeles Rams.
That will leave it up to Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to push this game to the over. Against a Jags pass defense that is one of the least reliable in the league, that shouldn't be an issue.
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