NFL Connections
Sixteen football tiles, four hidden groups of four. Find the connections — a division, a set of Hall of Famers, a group of penalties — and lock in each group before you run out of mistakes. You get four wrong guesses. A new puzzle every day, and an unlimited mode when one is not enough.
Loading today's puzzle…
How to play NFL Connections
The grid holds sixteen tiles that belong to four secret groups — teams, positions, legends, rules, and the like. Tap four tiles you think share a connection, then hit Submit. Get all four right and the group locks into a coloured band with its category revealed. Get it wrong and you lose one of your four guesses; when three of your four picks belong to the same group, the game tells you that you were one away.
The trick is the overlaps. A tile can look like it fits two groups — that is the trap. Solve the group you are most certain of first, because every locked group shrinks the board and makes the rest easier. Shuffle rearranges the tiles if a fresh layout helps you see it, and Deselect clears your current pick.
What the colours mean
Each group has a difficulty colour, easiest to hardest: yellow, green, blue, then purple. Yellow is usually the most obvious connection and purple the sneakiest, so if you are stuck, the yellow group is the place to start. Your shareable result is the grid of colours in the order you guessed them — no answers spoiled.
NFL Connections and the daily puzzle habit
If you play the New York Times Connections or its Sports Edition, the format will feel familiar — sixteen tiles, four groups, four mistakes. This one is all football. It is an independent, unofficial game and is not affiliated with the NFL or the NYT; it uses factual football terms and names only, with no team logos or marks. Want more? We keep a daily Sports Connections hints-and-answers hub, and if you would rather guess a single mystery player, try Guess the NFL Player or NFL Wordle.
Frequently asked questions
How do I play NFL Connections?
Tap four of the sixteen tiles you think share a football connection, then hit Submit. Get all four right and the group locks in with its category revealed. Get it wrong and you lose one of four mistakes. Solve all four groups before your mistakes run out to win the day.
What are today's answers or hints for NFL Connections?
This page is the game itself, so we don't spoil the solve here. If you're stuck, start with the yellow group (usually the most obvious connection), watch for tiles that look like they fit two categories, and use Shuffle to see the board with fresh eyes. For today's category hints and a spoiler-gated full reveal, see our answers & hints page.
Are there hints, and do they cost anything?
No, NFL Connections doesn't have a built-in hint button or paid hints. The only in-game help is the difficulty color coding — yellow through purple, easiest to hardest — and the "one away" message you get when three of your four picks share a group. Beyond that, it's all deduction.
Is there an archive of past puzzles?
Not inside the game itself — each day loads one puzzle tied to that calendar date, with no in-game way to browse or replay earlier days. Our answers page covers that instead: it recaps the last few days' answers and keeps a full spoiler-gated archive of every puzzle formula in the rotation. Unlimited mode is the other workaround if you just want more puzzles to play — it deals a fresh one from the same library each time you click "New puzzle," just not tied to a specific past date.
What puzzle number is today, and when does it reset?
The puzzle number counts up by one each calendar day starting from the game's launch on August 7, 2026 — the app shows it as "NFL Connections #N" in your share text. The board resets to a new daily puzzle at midnight UTC, same for every player regardless of time zone.
Is there a leaderboard?
No, NFL Connections doesn't have a leaderboard or any way to compare scores against other players in-game. You can still compare informally: hit Share to copy your color-grid result and guess count as text, then send it to a friend who played the same day's puzzle.
Can I create and share my own puzzle?
Not yet — there's no puzzle builder or custom-puzzle sharing in NFL Connections right now. Sharing is limited to posting your own completed result (a color grid plus guess count) after you finish a puzzle someone else built.
Do I need an account to track stats or a streak?
No account exists for NFL Connections, and there's no streak counter. The game saves only your current day's progress — mistakes made, groups solved, guess history — to your browser's local storage so you can resume if you close the tab, but that resets when a new daily puzzle loads.
Is there a Connections game for other sports?
Yes. NFL Connections is football-only, but SportsMonkie also runs a daily Sports Connections hub that spans multiple sports, with its own hints and answers pages if you want help with that version specifically.
What happens when I run out of mistakes?
After your fourth wrong guess, the puzzle ends immediately: any groups you hadn't solved get revealed as bands on the board so you can see the full answer, and the game tells you it's over. You can still hit Share to post your color-grid result, and Daily mode is done until tomorrow — Unlimited mode lets you start another puzzle right away.
Is there an NFL Connections app?
No, it's a free browser game, not a downloadable app. It runs in any modern desktop or mobile browser with no install and no sign-up — just open the page and play. Progress saves to that browser's local storage automatically.
Is there a scoring or points system?
No numeric score. Your result is your guess count (how many tries it took to solve all four groups) plus a color-coded grid showing the order you solved yellow, green, blue, and purple. Fewer guesses is the goal, but nothing converts that into points, and there's no ranking or grading tier.
Is NFL Connections harder than NYT Connections?
It uses the same format and difficulty scale — sixteen tiles, four mistakes, yellow-to-purple color coding — so the structural difficulty is comparable. What changes is the subject matter: instead of general trivia and wordplay, every category and overlap trap is built from real football terms, teams, and history, so it rewards NFL knowledge specifically rather than broad puzzle-solving skill.
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