House Broncos

The Wound

Fourteen wins. The top seed in the conference. Home field, in the cold, with everything arranged exactly as a house would arrange it if it could choose.

And they lost the conference championship 10–7, in the snow, to New England. Seven points, at home, with the throne one door away.

Nobody is talking about Denver. The realm has moved on to other stories, and this house went 14–3 and got closer to the final field than twenty-eight others and is somehow a footnote in its own season. They should be furious. There is reason to think they are.

The Lord

Bo Nix, entering his third season, already with a conference championship appearance behind him and no particular fanfare attached. He has been underestimated at every stage of his career, including now, including by people who watched him win fourteen games.

The Knights

• Jaylen Waddle — bought from Miami this spring, and precisely the thing this house lacked in a 10–7 loss: someone who can win a game on his own.
• J.K. Dobbins — twenty million, to make the winter games heavier.

Ancient Grudges

• House Chiefs. Two decades of watching the same house own this division. Kansas City fell to 6–11 last year and Denver took the West. It felt like a beginning.
• House Raiders. Old, loud, and largely ceremonial now.

What Changed This Spring

Waddle and Dobbins. Both are the same admission: this house lost a conference championship by three points because it could not score, and it has spent the offseason making certain that specific thing does not recur.

Prophecy

That the AFC came through Denver last year and will again.