The final week of the regular season is here! The regular season kicks off two weeks from Thursday. Teams have this final preseason game to finish making decisions on who makes the 53-man roster. Make decisions on starters and get everyone warmed up and ready to take on the 2025 NFL season. Let’s take a look at this 2025 NFL preseason Week 3 preview and best bets.
The football week once again kicks off on Thursday evening with two games featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots at the New York Giants. Friday has four games in action: Eagles at Jets, Falcons T Cowboys, Vikings at Titans, and Bears at Chiefs. The final 10 games will all take place on Saturday. 53-man rosters are due next Tuesday, August 26th, as the teams finalize getting ready for the season.
2025 NFL Preseason: Week 3 Preview and Best Bets
New England Patriots +6.5 (-110) vs New York Giants
This one opened with the Patriots as three-point favorites, and has swung all the way around to 6.5-point underdogs. It’s been reported that the Patriots will rest their starters, who have looked great through two games. Russell Wilson is seemingly locked in as the Giants’ regular-season starter, so it would make sense for them to get a good, long, hard look at their rookie first-round pick, Jaxson Dart, this week.
The line movement makes sense, but both of these teams have been strong throughout the preseason. There will be veterans and key players for both sides that don’t suit up, but there are plenty of positional battles on both sides of this that will have both teams getting up big for this game. You have two coaches who’ve gone for it all preseason, and both have a lot on the line going into the season. I would have taken the underdog on either side here, and a 9.5-point swing is just too over reactionary.
Chicago Bears +2.5 (-118) vs Kansas City Chiefs
The Bears are a team that’s taken this preseason pretty seriously. We didn’t see Caleb Williams and the starters in Week 1, and they ended up tying with the Dolphins, who at least started their starters. Last week, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams had things humming and the Bears looking good. Then, Tyson Bagent came in and looked so good that he earned himself a contract extension to remain the backup in Chicago as the Bears beat the Bills 38-0. All signs point to Williams and company playing again this week as the Bears finish ironing things out in their new system.
Tyson Bagent played college football for DII Shepherd Rams in WV
He wasn’t drafted & his first deal was a $25k signing bonus + $1.5M the last two years
He just signed a $10M extension ($5M/year) and broke down in tears, saying how many people he can help with this money👏👏 pic.twitter.com/CdLvSoxmjy
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 20, 2025
On the other side, Patrick Mahomes has thrown one pass through two games, and he’ll likely see a little more time this week as the Chiefs get ready for a Week 1 game in São Paulo. It’ll then be a split between Gardner Minshew and Bailey Zappe behind center for the Chiefs. Andy Reid has proven throughout his very middling preseason record that hovers right below .500, that he doesn’t care about preseason results. He’ll be evaluating the final roster spots with less focus on the game itself. I think this gives the Bears an advantage, and they just drubbed the Bills a week ago.
Baltimore Ravens -2.5 (-110) vs Washington Commanders
John Harbaugh is the greatest coach in the history of the world if you look at preseason records alone. Harbaugh is 42-21 ATS in preseason games. He’s once again 2-0 both straight up and against the spread this year. Yet somehow finds himself as less than a field goal favorite against a team that’s 0-2 in the preseason. Didn’t cover against Zac Taylor last week, who was 3-13 ATS going into the game. Commanders coach Dan Quinn isn’t much better at just 7-18-1 ATS in his preseason career.
That’s really all the handicapping I need; it doesn’t seem to matter who is playing for Baltimore, or even who they are playing against. They get it done time and time again. Washington’s offensive line is beat up, and it appears Jayden Daniels likely won’t play anyway after taking just four snaps with no pass attempts in Week 2. This is the bet of the week for me. In John Harbaugh we trust.
Indianapolis Colts +2.5 (-110) vs Cincinnati Bengals
I’ll start by saying neither of these teams is very trustworthy in general. The Bengals are notoriously slow starters in the regular season, so they tried something a little different this preseason and played their starters much more than normal. However, Zac Taylor has already said the starters will not play this week. That brings us back to the Zac Taylor that is just 4-13 ATS in his preseason career, which is usually because his starters aren’t playing.
The Colts also won’t have their starters out there; Riley Leonard and Jason Bean will get playing time as they vie for the third-string quarterback spot on the depth chart. There was no mention of whether Anthony Richardson would play after Daniel Jones was named the starter earlier this week. This is the game where we see Cincinnati fall back into their old preseason self, and the Colts sneak away with one.
