How to play the NFL Grid

Nine squares, nine guesses, one new grid every day at midnight ET. Here is exactly how a square is judged and how rarity is scored.

Fill a square with a player who fits both headers

Every square sits under a column header and beside a row header. Rows are always NFL teams. Columns are teams, or a season stat, a college, a position or the draft. Tap a square, start typing a name, and pick him from the list. For Eagles and Chiefs, any player who played for both teams works, in either order and any years.

Nine guesses for nine squares

A right answer fills the square. A wrong one leaves it empty and still uses a guess. A player can fill only one square per grid, and the list marks players you already used or already missed in that square. The board ends when the squares are full, the guesses run out, or you give up.

Which seasons count

Every NFL season from 1999 on, regular season and playoffs. Players whose careers ended before 1999 are not in the list. Played for a team means he recorded at least one stat in a game for that team: a catch, a carry, a tackle, a kick, even a penalty.

Season stats, colleges, positions and the draft

A season header is regular-season totals in one season, with every team he played for that year added together. It does not have to come with the team in the other header. The season headers are:

4,000+ pass yard season
30+ pass TD season
1,000+ rush yard season
10+ rush TD season
1,000+ receiving yard season
100+ catch season
10+ receiving TD season
10+ sack season
5+ interception season

College headers count any school he attended, from Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Florida, Penn State, Miami (FL), USC, Florida State, Iowa, Clemson, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Auburn, Texas A&M, Oregon, Stanford, Washington. Position headers (quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end) use his listed position. First-round pick means he was drafted in the first round by any team.

Rarity

Each right answer scores the share of everyone's right answers in that square that named the same player, from 0 to 100. An empty or missed square scores 100. The nine add up to your rarity: lower is rarer, a blank board is 900, and a full board of answers nobody else found is close to 0. Shares are counted anonymously, one tally per player per square.

Streaks, stats and old grids

Your boards, streak and averages are saved in this browser, no account needed. The streak counts days in a row you finished the grid on its own day. Every past grid stays playable, and the day after a grid ends its page lists every valid answer.

Every grid is checked before it goes out

The grids are built from nflverse public NFL data and checked so every square has at least three valid answers from players with 32 or more games. Most squares have dozens.

Play today's NFL Grid