🏈 CONNECTIONS

Find four groups of 5 NFL players that share a connection

NFL Connections | DoUKnowBall

A daily puzzle where you group NFL players by what connects them: same franchise, same college, same draft slot, or same career milestone.

Twenty pro football players sit in a grid, hiding four groups of five that share something: a franchise, a college, a draft slot, a milestone. Find all four groups before four wrong guesses find you.

The cruelty is the overlap. That quarterback fits the LSU group and the number one picks group, but he only belongs to one.

How to play NFL Connections, a free online NFL grouping puzzle

Scanning twenty names for a shared theme

Scan the 20 names for anything five of them share.

Tapping five players and submitting

Tap exactly 5 players and hit submit.

Locking a group or losing a life

A real group locks in with its theme and color. A miss costs one of your 4 lives.

Clearing the board of all four groups

Solved groups leave the board, making the rest easier to read. Clear all four to win.

NFL Connections rules: groups, lives and color difficulty

Groups of five and exact matches

Groups are five players each, and a submission must match exactly. Four right and one wrong is still wrong.

Four lives and no hint system

You get 4 lives for the whole puzzle, and there is no one away hint.

What the yellow, green, blue and purple colors mean

Colors mark difficulty: yellow is gentlest, then green, then blue, and purple is the trap.

Losing all your lives and the daily puzzle

Lose all lives and the remaining groups reveal themselves. Daily is one shared puzzle with saved progress, and Unlimited pulls random ones.

NFL Connections walkthrough: untangling an LSU overlap

Locking an easy shared team group

You spot five players who all wore a Patriots uniform and lock the yellow group. Then an LSU group looks obvious, except six names fit, which means one of them belongs somewhere else.

Untangling an LSU overlap trap

You guess wrong once, swap the receiver for the safety you forgot went to LSU, and it locks. From ten names the rest sorts itself, and you finish with 2 lives left.

NFL Connections tips for spotting the real theme fast

Counting candidates before you submit

Count candidates before submitting. Six names fitting a theme means you have not found the real theme yet.

Locking your surest group first

Lock your surest group first, not the first one you noticed. Every solve removes noise.

Resolving a fight between two groups

When two groups fight over one player, work out where the other four names in each group come from.

NFL Connections FAQ: group sizes, colors and daily play

How is this different from other connections games?

It runs bigger: four groups of five instead of four, so 20 players on the board and more overlap traps.

What themes show up?

Shared franchises, colleges, draft slots, and career milestones like passing yard thresholds. The purple group leans on the sneakiest link.

Do I lose progress if I close the tab?

No. The daily puzzle saves as you go and picks up where you left off.

Is NFL Connections free to play?

Yes. NFL Connections is free to play on DoUKnowBall, right in your browser. No download and no signup needed.

More games to play

🏈 NFL Connect 4 Football trivia meets Connect 4 🕵️ Missing Eleven Name the missing starter from a famous Super Bowl offense 🗺️ NFL Conquest The imperialism map: winners annex whole empires until one team rules America 🏀 Guess The CBB Program Guess the college basketball program 📜 Career Quiz Guess from career history ⚾ Career Path Guess the baseball player