There was little doubt, despite two underwhelming games, that Josh Dobbs would be the Vikings’ starting quarterback for Sunday’s game in Las Vegas.

It’s apparent that the Vikings don’t think rookie Jalen Hall is ready and that Dobbs has better athletic skills than backup Nick Mullens. Plus, Dobbs’ mobility paired with the return of wide receiver Justin Jefferson should be beneficial against the Raiders.

Among the trio of QBs, it was understandably concluded that Dobbs gives the Vikings the best chance to win on Sunday.

>> Regardless, it’s clear none of the three QBs will be the Vikings’ starter in 2024. That will be either Kirk Cousins or someone else.

Cousins, who could have a free-agent price tag exceeding $40 million for 2024, isn’t expected to be fully recovered from his Achilles tear when free agency opens in March. The Vikings’ options could include journeymen Gardner Minshew, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Andy Dalton — those types — as a bridge if the Vikings use their first-round draft pick in April on a QB, perhaps LSU’s Jayden Daniels or Oregon’s Bo Nix.

>> Cousins’ situation is complicated because of his age (36 in August), his injury and what his open market will be. The Vikings have to consider the risk of Cousins’ re-injuring his Achilles’ tendon. Peak age for Achilles ruptures is between 30 and 40, the Mayo Clinic says.

>> It finally looks like the $1.5 billion sale of the Timberwolves and Lynx to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore is going to go through. That despite owner Glen Taylor still allowing the pair a second deadline extension to get their finances in order with infused capital.

Taylor had given Rodriguez and Lore a Dec. 31 deadline to finalize the deal. There was a period earlier this year when the sale seemed uncertain while the pair was seeking more financing.

On Thursday evening at Target Center during the Wolves’ victory over San Antonio, Rodriguez noticeably sat courtside while a team photographer took pictures of him.

>> Taylor, 82, who is a double billionaire, is in no need of immediate cash.

“Don’t need the money,” he told the Pioneer Press.

>> Craig Leipold has a bounce in his step of late.

“Absolutely — I sleep better, I wake up, I have good thoughts in my mind,” the Wild owner said. “Yeah, I’ve got a bounce in my step. It’s good.”

The Wild owner’s suddenly surging team won four straight games since the firing of coach Dean Evason and hiring of John Hynes.

How does that happen?

“My feeling is a new coach comes in and the team resets,” Leipold said. “It’s ‘our first 17 games were terrible, we’re losing our confidence every game, we lost our edge, we’ve gotten sloppy.’ It’s not like (Hynes) came in and we have all these new plays and I want new players in. I’ve seen this so many times when a new coach comes in, it’s like they reset and they’re off in a different direction.”

>> Baseball Hall of Fame voting is underway. No doubt former Twins catcher Joe Mauer, who’s in his first year of eligibility, will someday be elected, if not this year. Only Johnny Bench and Ivan Rodriguez are catchers who were elected in their first year of eligibility.

>> Jason Kapsner, the former all-state QB from Eden Prairie who went on to play at Michigan, was among the 110,615 spectators who watched his alma mater defeat Ohio State 30-24 in Ann Arbor two weeks ago.

“Saw a lot of my old teammates and obviously was talking about what’s going on at the school and the program,” Kapsner said.

What’s going on is the Wolverines’ alleged sign-stealing scandal that resulted in coach Jim Harbaugh being suspended for three games.

“Everyone’s just incredibly proud of these kids, how they’re playing through everything and how it really brought the team together,” Kapsner said. “I think there’s an incredible amount of pride right now among myself and the former players. That’s the main sentiment I took away from the weekend.”

Michigan is ranked No. 1 for the first time since 1997, when the Wolverines, with Kapsner as a backup to Brian Griese, won their last national championship.

As for the sign-stealing and Harbaugh’s suspension, Kapsner said, “You break rules, there’s consequences. Clearly some rules were broken. I think the best analogy I heard was we all speed. I think everyone sort of breaks the rules. We just happened to be going 90 in a 60 versus everyone else going 70.”

Kapsner, 46, owns the Bluebird Group retail brand sales firm in downtown Minneapolis. After college, he had an opportunity to play in the Arena Football League but declined.

“There’s only one (hall of famer) Kurt Warner story,” he said.

>> It looks like Harbaugh, who nearly two years ago interviewed for the Vikings’ job, could be headed to the Chicago Bears after the season.

>> Three of legendary late St. John’s football coach John Gagliardi’s former players — Matt Kukar, Brian Smith and Will Steinke — will officiate bowl games, Kukar and Smith the Sugar Bowl, and Steinke the Idaho Potato Bowl.

>> After almost 2 1/2 years, referee Ken Mauer’s vaccine mandate lawsuit against the NBA is moving forward and has reached discovery and deposition stages. Meanwhile, the NBA has been withholding the St. Paul native’s pension. This would have been Mauer’s 39th season officiating in the NBA, including 20 Finals.

>> Defending large-school boys state hockey champion Minnetonka, coached by former North Stars captain Bill Goldsworthy’s son Sean, has nine players already committed to Division I programs.

Scouts say two of those players — Hagen Burrows and Javon Moore — project as the state’s top picks (third- or fourth-rounds) in June’s NHL draft.

>> Required Minnesota sports talk listening: The peerless Mackey & Judd SKOR North show on ESPN 1500 AM.

>> It was 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal hockey royalty lunching Wednesday in the Olympic room at Olympic Hills Country Club in Eden Prairie, headlined by former Gophers and Olympic stars Johnny Mayasich, Jack McCartan and Dick Meredith.

Mayasich, considered the greatest hockey player in Minnesota history, turns 91 in May. The former Eveleth star is especially sharp, participates in curling in Chaska two times a week and attributes his physical and mental acuity mainly, he said, “to genes. There were 12 in our family, and there are three of us left. I’ve got a brother 97 and a brother 95.” His father died at 79, his mother at 72.

He’s especially competitive in curling. “I play to win,” he said.

McCartan was named the MVP goaltender of the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif. A 1953 St. Paul Marshall grad who after the Olympics played for the New York Rangers and Minnesota Fighting Saints, is 88 and resides in suburban Minneapolis. He played professionally “until they found out my deficiencies,” he said.

Meredith, 90, brought his 1960 Olympic gold medal to the luncheon, which was attended by nearly two dozen former Minnesota hockey dignitaries, including Murray Williamson, Carl Wetzel, Art Miller, Dave Metzen, Jim Rantz, Ted Hampson, Larry Johnson, Doug Johnson and Ron Naslund. Meredith said he had heard his gold medal actually had just 14 percent of real gold in it.

>> Mike Ramsey, the youngest of Herb Brooks’ 1980 Olympic gold medal hockey champions, turned 63 last week.

>> Local author Patrick Mader has turned out a masterpiece with a collection of biographies of prominent Minnesota athletes.

>> Minnehaha Academy grad Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder has moved slightly ahead of San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama in odds for NBA rookie of the year, per sportsbetting.ag. No one else is close.

>> Tim Army, who last summer was fired as head coach of the Wild’s American Hockey League Iowa team after six seasons, has taken a job as associate coach of the Chinese men’s national hockey team, which is 26th in international rankings.

>> Ex-North Stars minor league broadcaster Stephen Michael, 74, has come a long way since growing up on Lincoln Avenue in St. Paul. He’s to be in Dubai this weekend as the TV voice of the final Grand Prix F1 H2O world powerboat championships that will be broadcast throughout Russia and China to more than 500 million homes across Europe.

>> Local sports speaker-author Ross Bernstein just returned from a seven-week international tour that ended in Australia and New Zealand.

>> Friends in Minnesota high school and college officiating circles are pulling for fellow referee-umpire John Faison, who is making slow progress after being hospitalized in a home roofing fall.

>> Single-game tickets to be announced next week for Minnesota’s team in the upstart Professional Women’s Hockey League will range from $20 to $70 at the X, all lower bowl seats. The team, which has its first of 12 home games on Jan. 6 against Montreal at the X, last week won its three exhibitions against the league’s three Canadian teams — Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

>> Bowling Green, the Gophers’ opponent in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit on Dec. 26, is the school ex-Gophers coach Jerry Kill’s New Mexico State team defeated 24-19 in the Quick Lane Bowl last year.

Late-night snacks for players in the Quick Lane Bowl will come from Buffalo Wild Wings, Qdoba Mexican Eats and DiBella’s Old-Fashioned Subs.

By the way, Kill’s Aggies (10-4), who will play Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque on Saturday, have three former Minnesota prep players, all freshmen: Rashad McKinley from Hill-Murray, George Steveken from St. Thomas Academy and R.J. Chakolis from Hopkins.

>> Former Humboldt tailback star Leon Hushcha, a Ukrainian, has his superb anti-war paintings on display at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis this month.

>> Eden Prairie’s Chat Ostlund, the former Vikings director of research and development, is getting a Grey Cup championship ring for his work as film director for the Montreal Alouettes.

After flying home from Montreal, Ostlund, 50, who was a close friend of beloved late Vikings coach Jerry Burns (who worked for Bud Grant with Winnipeg in the Canadian Football League), drove to Fort Snelling National Cemetery and placed a CFL championship cap on top of Burns’ gravestone. Burns won two CFL titles working for Grant with the Blue Bombers.

>> The Alouettes hadn’t won a Grey Cup since ex-Gopher Marc Trestman was coach in 2010.

>> Former Vikings Pro Bowl center Jeff Christy’s daughter Kennedy and her Juniata College team last weekend completed a 62-game winning streak in winning the Division III national volleyball championship for a second straight year.