Feature
Developmental Squads: Alaska and Chicago Play the Long Game
A flat $3.0M whether you carry one player or three. Only two teams used it — and one of them used it right.
By Dispatch Staff · 8/9/2026
The developmental squad is the most misunderstood line in the NJFFL constitution. It costs $3.0M against the $25M cap, flat, regardless of whether you stash one player or the full three. Which means carrying fewer than three is, mathematically, throwing money away.
Alaska Lookouts — 3 players. Theo Johnson (TE, $0.7M), Tory Horton (WR, $0.3M), Trey Benson (RB, $0.2M). Alaska maxed the squad, pushed their roster to 13 keepers, and still came in at $13.3M total with $11.7M to spend. Textbook.
Chicago Icemen — 2 players. Luther Burden III (WR, $0.8M) and Jalen Coker (WR, $0.5M). Two real prospects, but Chicago paid the same $3.0M Alaska did and got one fewer body for it. With the Icemen at $18.1M committed, that empty third slot is the most expensive vacancy in the league.
The other ten franchises skipped it entirely. In a rookie class this deep — 780 draft-eligible players on the board — that''s ten teams that will be dropping second-year talent for cap reasons they created themselves.
The takeaway for 2027: if you''re going to eat the $3.0M, fill all three chairs.
Photo: Luther Burden III — All-Pro Reels / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)