The moment you decide to place your wager is important when it comes to NFL betting. You don't have be at the mercy of whatever Vegas has the number at on Sunday morning if you sprinkle some dollars on intriguing lines a week ahead of time. Which is exactly what we do in this column every week.
Every Friday, we take a look at the NFL lines a week in advance to determine if we should put money down now in order to get the best bang for our buck. Most of these lines will likely change before we reach Week 12, so we want to go ahead and get our bets in if we see a nice opportunity for an upset, or to jump on a favorite before the line moves even more in its favor.
Before we jump into some early bets to consider, here are the lookahead lines for Week 12. All NFL odds come courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook.
Week 12 lookahead linesBears (-3.5) at Lions
Raiders at Cowboys (-7)
Bills (-4.5) at Saints
Eagles (-2.5) at Giants
Titans at Patriots (-3) (Before 'TNF')
Panthers (-2.5) at Dolphins
Jets at Texans (-2.5)
Steelers at Bengals (-4)
Falcons at Jaguars (PICK) (Before 'TNF')
Buccaneers (-3) at Colts
Chargers (-1.5) at Broncos
Rams at Packers (-1.5)
Vikings at 49ers (-2.5)
Browns at Ravens (-4)
Seahawks (-3.5) at Washington
The Buccaneers are coming off of an embarrassing loss to the Washington Football Team, but I believe that's an outlier. Both sides of the ball were out of sync and Tom Brady didn't look like Tom Brady. This team is still a legitimate contender, and should get better as we head down the stretch. This week, they play host to a Giants team in prime time they should beat. Whether they cover the double-digit spread is a legitimate question, but when it comes to this Week 12 matchup against the Colts, I'm more focused on Indy.
The Colts face the Bills this week in what will be their first road game in almost a month. While the general consensus is that they are a solid team, the Colts are 0-4 against teams with a winning record, and 5-1 against teams with a losing record. If they fail to cover the seven-point spread on Sunday, this line vs. the Bucs should move over a field goal.
Chargers (-1.5) at BroncosThe Chargers are struggling right now, as they have dropped three out of their last four. They have a solid chance at a "W" in Week 11, however, as they play host to Ben Roethlisberger and the banged-up Steelers. T.J. Watt is dealing with hip and knee issues, Minkah Fitzpatrick is likely out due to COVID-19 and then Roethlisberger is still questionable to play due to his placement on the reserve/COVID-19 list. If I had to guess, he plays, but he won't have much practice time. A Chargers victory would likely cause this line to increase.
The Broncos are on a bye this week. Normally you would think that helps a team regroup, but teams coming off of a bye week are 5-11 ATS this season. Additionally, this Broncos team is not very good. That 30-13 loss at home to the Eagles last week was gross to watch. If you think the Chargers are the superior AFC West team, I would grab this line now.
Vikings (+2.5) at 49ersThis is actually a moneyline sprinkle for me. It looks like the 49ers got back on track with their huge upset win over the Rams by relying on the run game and the physicality of their offensive and defensive fronts, but will they be able to maintain that kind of success moving forward? This team was just blown out by Colt McCoy and the Arizona Cardinals backups a couple of
