Miguel's Mailbag: Questions on Josh Gordon, upcoming free agents, Rob Gronkowski's incentives and more

All right, everyone. Let's dive into this week's questions:

Question from Twitter follower Fraser Hudson: What’s Josh Gordon’s cap hit like? Not often you get such an explosive player on a cheap contract, but I guess this situation is different.



Answer: Gordon's 2018 cap hit with the Patriots is $697,060. He will be a restricted free agent in 2019. The original draft-round tender (second) should be around $2 million. A first-round RFA tender should be around four million.

Question: What Patriots will become free agents after this season?

Answer: Unrestricted Free Agents (four or more accrued seasons):

1.    Stephen Gostkowski
2.    Ryan Allen
3.    Jason McCourty
4.    Eric Rowe
5.    Malcom Brown
6.    Trey Flowers
7.    John Simon
8.    Geneo Grissom
9.    Danny Shelton
10.   Chris Hogan
11.    Cordarrelle Patterson
12.    Phillip Dorsett
13.    Trent Brown
14.    Ulrick John
15.    LaAdrian Waddle
16.    Brian Schwenke
17.    Kenjon Barner
18.    Jeremy Hill

Restricted Free Agents:
•    Josh Gordon
•    Jonathan Jones

Exclusive Rights Free Agents:
•    Cody Hollister
•    Nicholas Grigsby

An email question from BSJ subscriber Steve Lanier: Hi Miguel...with the usage of Gronk limited in the passing game due to double teams, he seems hard-pressed to reach his incentive numbers this season. Two questions:

1. Can the Patriots decide to still pay him based on the fact that Brady simply can force the ball into double coverage to get him his numbers? OR does he HAVE to hit the numbers by the contractual agreement that the NFL would look at?

2. Do the recent incentives mentioned above to Gronk and to Brady's contract already count against the cap as if they were to be earned in full? If not how are they accounted for?

Answer: He has to earn the incentives to get paid. The Pats could do what they did with Lawrence Guy in February -- pay Gronkowski a roster bonus in 2019 for the same amount of his unearned incentives.

2. Tom Brady’s incentives currently count against the Patriots 2018 cap because they are classified LTBE (Likely to Be Earned). Gronkowski's do not because they are classified NLTBE.

Question from Twitter follower Josh Vitullo: Post Gordon, these are the Pats picks today?

1st (own)
2nd (Bears)
2nd (own)
3rd (Lions)
3rd (comp)
3rd (comp)
4th (own)
6th (comp)
7th (Browns)
7th (own)
7th (Eagles)
7th (comp)

Answer:

•    1st round: their original assigned pick
•    2nd round: from the Bears as part of a 2018 draft-day trade
•    2nd round: their original assigned pick
•    3rd round: from the Lions as part of a 2018 draft-day trade
•    3rd round: compensatory pick (Solder)
•    3rd round: compensatory pick (Butler)
•    4th round: their original assigned pick
•    5th round: compensatory pick (Amendola)
•    7th round: from the Eagles as part of a 2018 draft-day trade
•    7th round: from the Chiefs via the Browns and the 49ers as part of the Josh Gordon trade
•    7th round: their original assigned pick
•    7th round: compensatory pick (Fleming)

Please note the Patriots' original 2019 third-round pick was traded to the Browns as part of the Shelton deal. New England's original 2019 fifth-round pick was traded to the Browns as part of the Gordon deal. And the Patriots' original 2019 sixth-round pick was traded to the Lions as part of the Johnson Bademosi deal.

Question from Twitter follower Keith Mac: If Golden Tate does not re-sign with Philadelphia, will they get a comp pick?

Answer: Yes, in 2020 AND if they lose more compensatory free agents than they sign during the qualifying period in 2019.

Question from Twitter follower Joy Manning: Why are Julian Edelman's roster bonuses NLTBE?

Answer: Because he was inactive for every game in 2017.

Question from Twitter follower Brett Bosse: Has anyone ever played 17 regular season games in a season?

Answer: A total of seven players have played in 17 regular season games.

•    Chris Singleton in 1993
•    Dexter Carter in 1995
•    Marlon McCree in 2003
•    Jerry Rice in 2004
•    Micah Ross in 2004
•    Will Witherspoon in 2009
•    Will Allen in 2013

Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

Question from Twitter follower Sean Nolan: Any chance of waiver moves?

Answer: Always a chance, but the Patriots should be near the bottom of waiver priority for the rest of the season, so I would not count on them making a successful waiver claim. Starting on Nov. 1, all players -- including vested veterans -- go through waivers if cut. Before Nov. 1, vested veterans (players with four or more accrued seasons) did not go through waivers when released.

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Answer: Very doubtful, since Harrison was traded for a 2019 pick. Any compensatory pick for Brown would come in the 2020 draft. Trading a fifth-round pick during the 2019 draft probably gets you a fourth-round pick in 2020. So to do better means getting a third-round compensatory pick. But that would mean Brown signed a deal whose APY was at least $10 million. That's simply not happening.

Question from Twitter follower Wagner Branco: What is the dead money if New England cuts Marcus Cannon next season?

Answer: $2,800,000. Cannon's 2018 cap number is $7,487,500, so the Patriots would create $4,192,500 in cap space by releasing Cannon and then replacing him on the Top 51 list with a player with a $495,000 salary.

Question from Twitter follower SONY SZN: When is the latest they can activate Duke Dawson for Sunday?

Answer: 4 p.m. Saturday.

Question from Twitter follower Bookie: do you adjust your cap weekly based on bonus structures?

Answer: I change my cap space number whenever I know of a change to it. After the inactives are announced, I will change it, since a couple of Patriots will have earned NLTBE 46-man active roster bonuses. Edelman and Dont'a Hightower are currently both earning those type of bonuses.

Question: What is Player X's 2018 cap number?

Answer: Please see my 2018 salary cap page.

Question: What is Player X's 2019 cap number?

Answer: Please see my 2019 salary cap page.

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.