The ground is cleared before anybody arrives. That is the arrangement here: the plain is swept flat, ten men are handed identical purses, and the whole map is offered up as though nobody had ever lived on it.

Then they walked out onto it and, almost to a man, began pacing the outlines of the houses they used to own.

Justin got there first and hardest. By the fortieth stone he had committed 157 of his 200 dollars, and the heavy ones all went down in ruts he had cut himself. Ja'Marr Chase for the third time in his life — 40 once, 44 last season, 38 now. Ashton Jeanty for exactly 34, which is what Jeanty cost him last season, to the dollar, as though the intervening year had not been permitted to file an opinion. Puka Nacua again. Jayden Daniels again, dearer. He rebuilt the same house from memory, at speed, and had very little left when the middle of the map went.

On Bryan's plot there is a well he sank himself in 2021 for one dollar.

That well is Joe Burrow. He has let it go twice and twice come back to the same patch of ground and paid the going rate to reopen it: 32 the time before, 37 this time. He went back for Trevor Lawrence as well. When the surveying finished, Bryan had 81 dollars standing upright in three quarterbacks, more than anyone in the room, which is what five titles' worth of conviction looks like when it is converted into masonry.

He also walked away with three dollars still in his hand. In a room like this that is money buried in the garden and left there.

The striking thing about the morning was how little argument there was. Of everything the board could price, 116 came in within three places of where the room expected it to. Ten men, fifteen years of separate grudges, one shared opinion about what things are worth.

The widest disagreement in the entire auction was Daniel, over an eleven-dollar running back. Blake Corum, thirteen places clear of where the rest of them had him. Nobody outbid him. Nobody needed to.

Daniel's ground has two towers on it and open field behind them. Eighty dollars, two quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson and Drake Maye standing over everything he owns. His entire receiving corps came to 23, four men gathered up off the floor where other people had dropped them. He also paid 24 for Javonte Williams, whom he had last season for 4, which is an unusual way to reward a year's work.

Out at the edge of the map, the man who went 3-11 kept his purse shut while the good land went. By the fortieth stone Bolek had spent 86, less than anybody in the room.

Then he went shopping in his own attic. Davante Adams, who once cost him 32, came home for 7. Chris Godwin, once 16, came home for 3. Nothing on the whole property cost more than 31.

What he did pay full price for was the corner of the map nobody looks at: 19 dollars on a tight end, and 12 on a defence, in a league where a defence is generally acquired by finding one in the street. It is either the tidiest correction anyone made this morning or a man rearranging the furniture into a smaller house. Nobody in the room could tell which, including him.

Mario lifted the heaviest single stone of the day. Forty-nine dollars for Jahmyr Gibbs, a man he already owned once for 34. That is the rent now on standing where he was already standing. He put 110 into four running backs and built the rest of the place out of salvage: Aaron Rodgers, who cost him 25 four years ago, came off the pile for a dollar.

Gabes is the champion, and here that means a surcharge for having been right in public. James Cook cost him 27 last season. To keep the same man on the same ground this season the room charged him 41, and he paid it, and then put a further 45 into Bijan Robinson. At the very bottom of his ledger, for two dollars, is Kyle Pitts, bought for the third time in his life. That is not hope. That is collecting.

Bill bought the most expensive quarterback in the auction, 46 for Josh Allen, and then roofed the last two rooms of his house at a dollar apiece. Eric/Blakey went back for Christian McCaffrey, who cost him 46 in 2022 and 34 now, the same man at a clearance price. Jack, who led the table for the whole of last season and finished the year holding nothing at all, set his biggest stone at 36 and left one dollar unspent, fourteen years after his only title.

And Nate needs one win. Ninety-nine of them across fifteen seasons, the hundredth in sight since the closing weeks of last year. He came to the auction and picked up Jonathan Taylor, whom he first bought in 2021 for 48, and Derrick Henry for the third straight season at a price that falls every time he reaches for it: 37, then 44, now 28.

The stones are set. 1993 dollars are gone into the ground.

Ten cities founded this morning, every one of them standing precisely where the last one fell.