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 postseason 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 Altanta, 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.

>> 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.