Week 3 of the NFL season brings an unbeaten showdown in the AFC North, a marquee Sunday Night Football duel, and the league's first-ever regular-season game in Rio de Janeiro.
With that much on one Sunday slate, the Kalshi prediction markets tied to these games are worth a close look before kickoff. Check out our full Kalshi review, and download the Action Network app for more picks and analysis all season long. Here are four combos to consider.
How These Prediction Markets Work
Prediction markets let traders buy contracts tied to a specific outcome, and each contract's price moves with the market's perceived likelihood of that outcome. On Kalshi, almost every NFL game offers more than a simple moneyline contract on who wins: spread and total-points markets track the margin of victory and the combined score, giving traders several angles on the same matchup.
Pairing two of these single-game outcomes into one trade is what's known as a combo, and it can multiply the potential return compared with trading each leg on its own.
Combo 1: Two Unbeaten Teams Keep Rolling
Kansas City looks like the class of the field through two weeks, and Miami hasn't given the market much reason to think otherwise. Kenneth Walker III, the Chiefs' big free-agent addition from Seattle, leads the NFL in rushing yards, and Patrick Mahomes torched Indianapolis for 382 yards and three touchdowns last week once defenses started loading up on Walker. Travis Kelce, back for a 14th season, remains a problem underneath.
The Dolphins, at 0-2, have allowed a touchdown on nearly every series they've faced, most recently against San Francisco. The market treats Kansas City as one of the clearer favorites on the board this week. Pair that with Cincinnati, also 2-0 and playing behind a defense rounding into shape under Al Golden, on the road against a Pittsburgh offense that hasn't reached 300 total yards in either game. Two moneyline legs, two teams the market clearly trusts.
Combo 2: Road Favorites With Very Different Margins
Seattle enters Washington as a heavy favorite. Backup quarterback Drew Lock has been close to flawless filling in for the injured Sam Darnold, and Washington counters with its own backup, Marcus Mariota, after Jayden Daniels re-dislocated his throwing-side elbow last week, about as lopsided a quarterback picture as Week 3 offers.
Minnesota is unbeaten too, but the market barely leans its way in Tampa Bay, where Baker Mayfield is working through an illness, and the Buccaneers are still hunting their first win. Pairing a clear favorite with a much tighter read is exactly the kind of combo that rewards traders willing to back the closer call.
Combo 3: Ravens vs. Cowboys in Rio, Beyond the Winner
The NFL's first regular-season game in Rio de Janeiro doubles as a genuine pick'em between two 1-1 teams that have each looked good and bad through two weeks. Baltimore's Lamar Jackson brushed off talk of Dallas being "America's Team" this week, joking, "This is America, that's Brazil," and Derrick Henry has already topped 200 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the season.
Dallas answered a rough opener with a 37-20 rout of Washington behind Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. With the market split close to even on both the spread and the total, this looks like a game worth trading beyond the simple winner.
Combo 4: A Cross-Game Spread and Total
Not every combo has to live inside one game. Las Vegas is a surprising 2-0 under new coach Klint Kubiak, even after an offense that looked "abysmal" for most of 2025. New Orleans sits at 1-1 but hosts as the favorite, leaning on Tyler Shough, who leads the league in passing yards. The market gives the Saints a real, though not overwhelming, edge in the home scoreboard margin.
Pair that with the total in Denver, where Bo Nix and the Broncos host Matthew Stafford and an unretired Aaron Donald on Sunday Night Football: a number trending toward the lower end after both defenses controlled the fourth quarter last week. Combining a spread read from one game with a total read from another spreads the risk across two very different matchups.
