Patscap Mailbag: Questions on Mitchell, Hightower and forecasting some contracts for '18 and beyond

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Answer: Always a chance. Will Mitchell be activated to the 53-man roster? My guess is no. I believe Vincent Valentine will be the current player on Injured Reserve who will be designated to return.

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Answer: Tony Garcia is on the Non-Football Illness list. He is ineligible to be placed on the 53-man roster.

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Answer: Eight weeks after he was placed on Injured Reserve. Hightower was placed on Injured Reserve on Nov.7. Could conceivably come back on Jan. 2 which is the Tuesday before wild-card weekend, a.k.a. an expected bye week for the Patriots.

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Answer: Tavon Wilson is the last Patriot with a pick-six. He had one on December 22, 2013 against the Ravens as part of a 41-7 blowout.

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Answer: My opinion is that if Amendola wants to be a Patriot in 2018, he will be. I'd expect an one-year deal with a similar structure as this year:

$1.25 million salary
$50,000 offseason workout bonus money
$25,000 46-man active roster bonus ($400,000 total for the year)
His total cap number would be $1.675 million since his 46-man active roster bonuses would be classified LTBE (Likely to Be Earned) for 15 games.

As for some of the other players, I'd expect Martellus Bennett to retire. I'd also expect Dion Lewis to extend his stay with the Patriots with a three-year deal that mirrors James White's deal. White's deal has both playing-time and total yards from scrimmage incentives.

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Answer: $6,187,500. On March 16, Bennett is due a $2 million roster bonus. But I'd expect him to retire before then. If he chooses not to retire before March 16, expect Pats to release him before paying him that money.

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Answer: I project both the 2018 Patriots' adjusted cap number and their 2018 cap space number every week in my weekly incentives tracking report. You can find my Week 11 report here. Here's my current estimate for the Patriots 2018 cap space number. Please note that since this estimate will change frequently between today and March 14, 2018 — the first day of the new league year -- so I'll answer this question on a regular basis:

League cap: $178,000,000
Prior year carryover: $3,000,000
Adjustment: $1,700,000
Patriots adjusted cap: $182,700,000
2018 cap commitment: $167,000,000 (After tendering Ted Karras as an ERFA and signing 10 practice squad players to future contracts, the Patriots should have 59 players signed or tendered for the 2018 season.)
2018 CAP SPACE: $15,700,000

Have a question for a future PatsCap mailbag? You can send those to him at any time via email (patscap@bostonsportsjournal.com), or you can Tweet them to him here.