Sam Darnold has guided the Vikings to an improbable 6-2 start. But the way it looks now, the Vikings’ quarterback next season will be rookie J.J. McCarthy, not Darnold.

That’s because, if the Vikings get to the post-season and do well, Darnold, just 27, as a free agent could cost nearly $40 million a year on a new contract.

McCarthy, 21, although unproven and out for the season due to knee surgery, is in the first year of a $21.85 million, four-year contract.

For the Vikings to even consider a mega-deal for Darnold, it’s likely he would have to take them to the NFC championship game or even the Super Bowl. The Vikings this year already have extended sizable contracts to Justin Jefferson ($140 million) and Christian Darrisaw ($113 million), and last year to T.J. Hockenson ($69 million).

— The Vikings could have kept Kirk Cousins for the $180 million he received from Atlanta, but a big part of letting him go was the money. Meanwhile, Cousins, 36, is favored to win NFL Comeback Player of the Year award.

— Speaking of McCarthy, he has bought hall of fame former Twin Joe Mauer’s Sunfish Lake home.

— The Vikings are 6-2 heading into Jacksonville on Sunday, but the way it looks now, even 10 victories might not be enough to make the playoffs. That’s because the NFC is so strong this season.

The Lions, who are playing like a machine, are 7-1. The Packers are 6-3, Washington 7-2, the Eagles 6-2, the Falcons 6-3, and Arizona has won three straight games.

The Vikings might need at least 11 wins or possibly 12 for postseason.

— The Vikings’ current projected over-under win total is 10½, per BetOnline.ag. Before the season, it was 6½.
Cumulative NFL won-loss record through nine weeks of rookie QBs is 17-16.

— Speaking of Cousins, who has played at a Pro Bowl pace, a playoff berth could be at stake when the Vikings host the Falcons on Dec. 8.

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— It was 17 years ago this month that future hall of fame Viking Adrian Peterson, in a 35-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers, rushed for an NFL-record 296 yards at the Metrodome.

— Coach P.J. Fleck, whose football Gophers were upset 26-19 at Rutgers behind ex-QB Athan Kaliakmanis on Saturday, gets a $50,000 bonus for each conference victory above a .500 overall record. Minnesota is now 6-4, 4-3 in the Big Ten.

Fleck, who already was paid a contract installment retention bonus of $350,000 last spring, will get another $350,000 if he’s coach on Dec. 31.

— Entering Saturday, credible cbssports.com projected the Gophers to play Clemson in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Jan. 3 in Charlotte, N.C. That will change now.

— Average ticket price for the recent Yankees-Dodgers World Series at Yankee Stadium was $4,875, per TicketIQ. In 1965 for World Series Game 7 between the Twins and Dodgers at Metropolitan Stadium, reserved pavilion seats were $6.

— A longtime employee of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, whenever a notable major league baseball player came to the storied medical center for treatment, would ask the player to sign a baseball. On that ball, which now belongs to a relative from St. Paul, are authentic, legible signatures by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris and Julie Wera, a Winona, Minn., native who played for the famed 1927 Yankees. Estimated value of the ball: $15,000.

— Herb Brooks, the hockey coaching icon from St. Paul, died in a car crash in 2003 at age 66. Fans still visit his gravesite at Roselawn Cemetery and, respectively, leave pucks on both sides of the headstone.

— Among top sales people at Mercedes-Benz of St. Paul is Zach Green, son of late Vikings coach Denny Green.

—Former Gopher-Detroit Red Wing Reed Larson, who possessed one of the most powerful shots in the NHL, will be guest speaker at the Minnesota Hockey Old-Timers luncheon on Nov. 25 at Mancini’s Char House.

— You could not have met a better guy than Terry McMahon, the terrific College of St. Thomas and Cretin High basketball player who passed away in his sleep at 73. It was a full Church of the Assumption for McMahon’s funeral mass on Thursday.

— It was nice to see Mark Dienhart, the classy former Gophers AD, at McMahon’s funeral.

— Jerry Fearing, the fine Pioneer Press-Dispatch editorial cartoonist who died last month at age 94, had a big role in the creation of the iconic logo of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association in 1972. The logo, drawn in colorful detail, remains one of hockey’s all-time best, points out Fighting Saints fan page administrator Pat Sweeney from St. Paul.

— The WNBA champion New York Liberty are picked to repeat next year, per BetOnline.ag, with the Lynx again as runner-up.

— That was highly successful former Hill-Murray boys hockey coach Jeff Whisler, 66, scoring two holes-in-one within eight days recently at Indian Hills Golf Club, where he’s a 2.8 handicapper.

— Rent for that monstrous 34-story, 450-unit residential building outside left field at the Twins’ Target Field ranges from $1,750 a month to $12,000 a month, per the Wall Street Journal.

— Eric Musselman, who has been an NBA and college head coach now is in his first season at Southern California, on ebb and flows during a basketball game: “It’s hard to lead for an entire game because the game is a game of runs. There’s usually three runs in every game, whether the NBA or college game. If you can control two of the three runs (you’ll probably do well).”

— PGA Tour-bound Frankie Capan III isn’t the only golfer with a North Oaks Country Club background succeeding in pro golf. Muzzy Donohue, 23, last week advanced through First Stage PGA Tour qualifying in Ocala, Fla., with rounds of 71-73-69-69. The St. Thomas Academy grad’s Second Stage qualifying is Dec. 3-6 at Palm Coast in Florida.

Capan, 25, grew up on the 12th hole at North Oaks, Donohue on the 10th hole.

Donohue’s high school coach, accomplished player Erik Christopherson, is caddying for him.

“Erik’s my mentor,” said the 5-foot-10, 160-pound Donohue, a plus-five handicapper who flies drives 280 yards and is an exceptional wedge player.

Expenses for a year attempting to qualify for the PGA Tour generally are in the $75,000 range. Donohue is hoping to find financial investors.

— Former Gophers baseball player Ryan Duffy last week was voted to the South St. Paul School Board.

— St. Paul’s Tom Barnes, who worked the 1994 Super Bowl as an on-field official, this season is back evaluating Big Ten football officials.

— Among members of the Class AA state champion Highland Park girls cross-country team is Ruby Peterson, daughter of former Olympian Carrie Tollefson and husband Charlie Peterson.

— Happy birthday: Twins hall of famer Jim Kaat, who resides in Vermont in the summer and Georgia in the winter, turned 86 last week. The ambidextrous golfer has two new hips, a knee replacement and a pacemaker and is doing fine.

— Ex-Gophers QB Tanner Morgan has joined the staff at Search Ministries Twin Cities with former Vikings linebacker Jeff Siemon.

Don’t print that

— Suddenly, it appears Glen Taylor could be the best suitor to buy the Twins.

Minnesota Timberwolves co-owner Glen Taylor answers questions during a news conference to introduce Tim Connelly the team’s new President of Basketball Operations at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

First, some smart people have become skeptical of Taylor’s chances of winning the $1.5 billion arbitration hearing for control of the Timberwolves and Lynx against Alex Rodriguez, Marc Lore and Michael Bloomberg.

If Taylor, 83, loses, as a goodwill legacy gesture, he might be willing to spend the $1.5 billion or so on the Twins. People who know say the way Major League

Baseball is structured now, it’s difficult to make money on a cash-flow basis. What would be ideal for Minnesota is a local buyer who wants the Twins for the community, not for cash flow.

— If local Cambria quartz magnate-baseball fan Marty Davis were to end up with the Twins, don’t be surprised if former Twins Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Kent Hrbek are sought for the front office.

Meanwhile, there now is reason to believe the Pohlad family might not sell the Twins after all if it doesn’t get its price.

— Major League Baseball requires extensive background information from prospective buyers. Most likely, if the Twins are sold, it will take until mid-2025 to determine who will end up owning the team.

— The minimum requirement from MLB for controlling interest in a team is $400 million. The league allows up to 25 limited investors.

— Over the 40 years that the Pohlads have owned the Twins, if they end up getting about $1.5 billion in a sale, they will have had an annual return of about 14 percent. Most business transactions of that magnitude expect a return of about 20 percent.

— It still looks like, either near the end of this season or early next season, Vikings wideout Jordan Addison will receive a three-game suspension for a charge of driving under the influence in July in Los Angeles. The Vikings are hoping the legal process gets drawn out enough to at least get through this season, then having time to figure out how to plug Addison’s absence for next season.

This is a 2024 photo of Jordan Addison of the Minnesota Vikings NFL football team. This image reflects the Minnesota Vikings active roster as of Monday, June 3, 2024 when this image was taken. (AP Photo)

Addison is second in team receiving behind Justin Jefferson with 19 catches for 273 yards.

— If he continues at his current pace, Kirill Kaprizov’s next contract with the Wild could approach $15 million a season. Kaprizov, 27, is in the fourth season of a $45 million, five-year deal. He can become an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season. The Wild can’t re-sign him until July 1, but owner Craig Leipold insists he will.

— Pssst: Gophers freshman football star Koi Perich is getting $250,000 this season in a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal. That deal will be a lot more next year.

— Word is Dan Dainja, the 6-9, 255-pound former Park Center center, is getting $800,000 in NIL for his senior season at Memphis. He played for Illinois last season, Baylor before that.

— Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard is playing for $1.3 million via NIL this season.

— Tommy Ahneman, the 6-10, 250-pound Cretin-Derham Hall center who has committed to Notre Dame, is part of the Irish’s 2025 No. 1 recruiting class in America. He’ll become wealthy at Notre Dame. In the classroom, he has a 3.5 grade-point average.

— One of Minnesota’s greatest golfers, John Harris, 72, is doing fine after a leukemia diagnosis in March. The former U.S. Amateur champion, PGA Champions Tour champion and four-time U.S. Walker Cup member from Roseau will have a bone marrow transplant at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 26. Many in the golf community are pulling for him.

— Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, who this season led the Commodores’ upset of then-No. 1 Alabama, was brought to Vanderbilt by Jerry Kill, the former Gophers head coach who is a senior offensive assistant. Kill was able to get five top players to transfer this season from New Mexico State, which he coached to the New Mexico Bowl last season.

— The Gophers in 1959 signed basketball coach Johnny Kundla, at age 42, after he coached the Minneapolis Lakers to six world championships, to a four-year contract at $12,000 a year. He was paid $13,500 a year by the Lakers.

— Only Penn State has better players than the Gophers on Minnesota’s remaining regular-season schedule.

— Scouts say the best post-Gophers basketball opportunity for 6-11 Dawson Garcia next year is overseas, not the NBA.

— Colorado State’s Niko Medved from Roseville remains the logical choice if the Gophers men’s basketball program makes a coaching change after the season.

— For the Timberwolves last season, Karl-Anthony Towns averaged 21.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. For the Knicks this season, he’s averaging 23.8 points and 13 rebounds.

— Sports Gossip Show co-host Madeline Hill on the Towns trade from the Timberwolves to the Knicks, on NBA Stein Line: “His girlfriend, Jordyn Woods, really got the courtside upgrade of a lifetime. Can you imagine learning that you’re going from courtside in Minnesota to courtside at Madison Square Garden next to Spike Lee? It’s the equivalent of going from eating brand cereal your mom forced you to eat as a kid to devouring Cinnamon Toast Crunch every day in the dining hall in college.”

— In a week, the 2025 WNBA draft lottery will be held. The Lynx, due to their runner-up finish to the champion Liberty, won’t be among the top four picks, therefore not eligible to choose former Hopkins star Paige Bueckers of Connecticut. Bueckers could be the No. 1 pick in the draft.

— A little birdie says there is considerable jockeying underway within the Twins’ front office for the vacant general manager job.

— Of the 47 men’s basketball teams that have transitioned to Division I since 2000, St. Thomas is the only school that has won 19 or more games in its second and third seasons.

— With just next year left on his contract, ex-Viking Adam Thielen, 34, of the Carolina Panthers has withdrawn from a golf trip he was registered for in Northern Ireland in November 2025.

— People who know say only two of Major League Soccer’s 29 franchises make money, and the Minnesota United Loons are not among them.

Overheard

— Three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty of NBC Sports, on Vikings QB Sam Darnold: “As awesome as he has been, I think that’s going to be the thing that holds the Vikings back against the elite teams. Is he going to be able to rise to the next level.”

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