With the NFL preseason winding down and the regular season only a few weeks away, it’s time to look at the various ways to spend your NFL regular season bankroll.

You can bet on NFL game lines of course, but there are a number of other interesting bets you can wager on as well.

NFL Futures

With parity in the NFL, everyone pretty much has an equal chance of making the playoffs. Here are some teams you might want to lay a futures wager on.

Division Winners: American Football Conference

AFC East

Most experts agree that the Pats and Fish will battle it out for the division crown. Here is some food for thought.

Miami Dolphins (+160)

2005 was Chris Chambers’ breakout year. With Gus Frerotte lining up at QB, Chambers managed to snag 82 balls for 1,118 yards and 11 TDs. New Dolphins QB Daunte Culpepper has a stronger arm than old Gus, so logic would dictate even bigger numbers from Chambers this season, but a couple of things could hamper that.

Culpepper is coming off major knee surgery and while he took all the snaps in training camp and saw preseason action, it remains to be seen how he will hold up for a full 60 minutes.

Though former offensive coordinator Scott Linehan left for St. Louis, the Dolphins will pretty much make calls from the same playbook, with more running added in based on new coordinator Mike Mularkey’s past tendencies.

Culpepper thrived in Linehan’s pass happy offense when the two were with Minnesota, but if Mularkey tinkers with the playbook a little too much, it may affect the number of balls that Culpepper will toss to Chambers.

Though the Dolphins have solid ‘D,’ they took a wrecking ball to their secondary and are rebuilding it from the ground up. With a lot of new bodies, the defensive backs may take some time learning head coach Nick Saban’s various coverage schemes.

Miami’s strength of schedule ranks 27th based on last year’s results and with no Westcoast swings on the sked, things could be promising.

New England Patriots (-300)

Since his days in Cleveland, Bill Belichick has evolved from a good to great coach, one on par with Bill Walsh. That reason alone makes New England the favorite to win the East.

While Belichick has built a solid offense around QB Tom Brady—giving him many options to go to—there could be trouble on the horizon. The team lost complementary WR David Givens (59 rec. for 738 yds, 2 TDs) to Tennessee and leading WR Deion Branch (78 rec. for 998 yds, 5 TDs) is holding out. That in combination with the loss of William Tell-like kicker Adam Vinatieri and a wrist injury to inspirational leader Tedy Bruschi has some pundits leaning towards Miami.

The Patriots do hold a trump card over the Dolphins though. They signed former Dolphins LB Junior Seau who played with Miami the past couple of seasons and has intricate knowledge of Miami’s systems.

The Pats’ sked may be harder than Miami’s, but not by much and that could be of benefit.

AFC East North South West

NFC East North South West

NFL prop bets