House Falcons

The Wound

Twenty-eight to three.

That is not a score to this house. It is a wound with a number, and the number is said aloud by opposing bannermen in bars, at weddings, for the rest of time. In February 2017 Atlanta led the final game of the year by twenty-five points in the third quarter and lost it. Nobody has ever done that before or since.

Everything this house has done in the decade since has been read through that afternoon.

The Lord

Tua Tagovailoa, signed for the league minimum.

Read that again. A former top-five pick, a man who has led the sport in passing, arrived here on the smallest contract available — because Miami was done and nobody else called. It is the most quietly brutal transaction of the offseason, and if it works it is the best story in the realm.

The Knights

• Drake London — a hundred and forty-one million to stay. The one thing this house was never going to lose.
• Jahan Dotson — fifteen million, added.

Ancient Grudges

• House Saints. Genuine, regional, and nastier than the rest of the division combined.
• House Patriots. Not a rivalry. The scene of the crime.

What Changed This Spring

Tua on the minimum, London extended enormously, Dotson added. A house at the bottom of the realm’s expectations that spent its money on one man and got its quarterback for free.

Prophecy

Modest. But the lord costs nothing, so the downside is only feelings.