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Although teaser bets have long been a menu staple of sportsbooks worldwide and are available for all point-spread based sports, pro football is the primary realm in which the customer can weaponize the teaser bet.

For the uninitiated, a teaser wager is a variation of a parlay in which the customer selects two or more legs and accepts additional points in their favor in return for reduced payout odds, the latter a byproduct of the advantage gained by the bettor.

The 6-point teaser in the NFL is a popular wager because of the massive advantage gained in grabbing nearly a full extra touchdown in your chosen side of the point spread or total. For instance, say the Chiefs are 7-point favorites over the Texans, taking Kansas City on a 6-point teaser reduces the spread to -1. This is tantamount to taking the Chiefs to win outright as opposed to laying a big number in the NFL. Conversely, taking Houston would give the bettor +13, nearly two touchdowns of value.

Both sides of this equation rate to have some value considering, in the parity-driven NFL, approximately 53% of games have been decided by a touchdown or less over the past 25 years. Moreover, teasers can be used to adjust the numbers on an over/under total as well.

Many sportsbooks used to offer odds of -110 (risk $110 to win $100) on a two-team, 6-point NFL teaser. In recent years, betting outlets have raised the price of this customer-favorable wager, although DraftKings still offers -120 on this bet. Similar to a standard parlay, the odds increase with additional legs added. DraftKings currently offers +160 on a three-leg teaser, +260 for four legs and +400 for five legs.

But as the title "teaser" suggests, it's easy to get lured in and carried away amid the enticement of favorable adjusted odds and add one too many legs to your teaser, thus negating the inherent advantage. Although it takes discipline, we are recommending sticking to two-leg, 6-point NFL teasers to maximize your profit margin.  

We have been longtime advocates of the 6-point NFL teaser and, in this space, we're going to offer our best weekly NFL teaser plays. We are going sperate, two-leg ATS teasers for the early and late slates, one for totals only, and another for the primetime games. This will keep you in NFL teaser action all Sunday and Monday, should you so choose. We will also rate the strength of the teaser leg on a five-star scale so you can mix and match and you see fit, and we will document all records in this space.

Here are our top 6-point teaser plays for Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season:

Early Week 1 slate teaser

We're going with an early-bird teaser for the front-end slate. We like the Falcons, who swept this series last year, to possibly win outright, but love the cushion across multiple key numbers. Moreover, divisional Week 1 home underdogs have covered at a 79% clip in 29 opportunities since 2009. 

With the Cardinals, it's always dangerous backing road NFL favorites, but if the Saints are as bad as we expect them to be, it's a safe position to take Arizona essentially straight-up to win. If the Cardinals can't get out of New Orleans with a victory, they may have more problems than the home team.

Late Week 1 slate teaser

We liked the Denver side a lot better at the opening number of -7 that could be teased down to -1. Although we'd usually hesitate to lay any points with a teaser number, we still think they should get past the revamped Titans and will lay the short number. 

The Packers have moved to -2.5 upon the acquisition of Defensive Player of the Year favorite Micah Parsons and the perception that the Lions are headed toward regression. Even so, we see this as a one-score game and love the cushion that accompanies teasing the Lions.

Week 1 totals only teaser

  • Panthers/Jaguars Over 40.5 points (4 stars)
  • Steelers/Jets Under 44.5 points (4.5 stars)

We liked the Over on the opening number of 45.5 for Jacksonville and Carolina. Although it has predictably moved north 1-2 points at most outlets, we're comfortable with this teaser leg. With both upstart teams expected to have ample firepower and perhaps marginal defensive units, this debut showcase of rookie talents such as Jacksonville's Travis Hunter and Carolina's Tetairoa McMillan. 

Conversely, we expect Jets/Steelers to follow the griding game script that the posted total of 38.5 suggests and love getting Under the key number of 44.5 in this slugfest.

Week 1 primetime games teaser

We love teasing both underdogs in the SNF and MNF games. We believe the Ravens will avenge their tight loss to the Bills last season but are thrilled to get more than a touchdown of cushion in what should be a tight game either way. We also feel the Bears should be a slight favorite in their MNF showdown with the Vikings and will also happily take the 7.5 with a live home underdog. 

Top five-star Week 1 teaser play

  • Lions (+8.5) and Ravens (+7.5)

See above for full analysis. 

Josh Nagel is SportsLine's assistant managing editor and a veteran NFL analyst. Over the past two seasons, his NFL money-line selections have gone 26-15 for a profit of nearly $800 for $100 bettors.