The Minnesota Vikings’ defense keeps piling up numbers, and Blake Cashman is one of the reasons it looks so overwhelming right now.
In Sunday’s 16-10 win over the Indianapolis Colts, Cashman turned in one of his best performances in a Vikings uniform. He finished with 12 total tackles and three quarterback hits, and he also became the first player since former Chicago Bears linebacker Alex Brown to record at least two sacks and four passes defensed in the same game.
That kind of outing fits the bigger picture in Minnesota. This defense has become the NFL’s best without leaning on a single obvious superstar, even if Harrison Smith looks like a future Hall of Famer and Dallas Turner is in the middle of a breakout season. Outside of Minnesota, plenty of fans would still struggle to name the key pieces driving Brian Flores’s unit, and Cashman is one of those names.
He arrived in 2024 as a free-agent signing after a recommendation from Gophers linebackers coach Mike Sherels. Cashman, a Minnesota native and former standout with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, was a player Sherels vouched for in a conversation with Flores.
According to Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune, Sherels called Cashman “The best guy we had” while talking with Flores as their daughters were on a playground, and that pushed Flores to study the tape and pursue him in free agency.
“That happens,” Flores said in September 2024. “You have a conversation with somebody, you don’t know somebody all that well, but it’s someone who has no agenda - just a former coach that knows him personally, speaks highly of him. You look him up, and there he is.”
Cashman became an immediate starter as part of that 2024 free-agent group that also included Aaron Jones, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Sam Darnold. In 14 games that season, he posted 112 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and an interception.
He has been even better in 2025. Entering Sunday’s game against the Colts, Cashman had 42 total tackles, four tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks, and he had already set a career high with 144 tackles despite being limited to 13 games by injury.
His impact goes beyond the counting stats, though. Before Sunday, Cashman had allowed 12 catches for 98 yards and three pass breakups on 19 targets, showing how useful he is in coverage as well.
He also wears the “green dot,” which means he handles communication with the coaching staff and relays the message to teammates on the field. That role is part of what lets Flores stay aggressive. Minnesota entered Sunday with a 65.6 percent blitz rate, nearly double the New York Giants’ 38.0 percent mark, which ranked second in the NFL.
Against Indianapolis, the Vikings pushed that aggressiveness even further. ESPN’s Kevin Seifert noted that Minnesota blitzed Daniel Jones on 85 percent of his dropbacks, the highest rate by any NFL team over the past 20 seasons.
Smith made it clear that Cashman’s value stretches well beyond his name recognition.
“I don’t think he always gets the credit he deserves outside of this area. But he’s one of the best doing it right now.”
Cashman is only one piece of the puzzle, but he helps make the whole thing run. Jalen Redmond and Levi Drake Rodriguez have given Minnesota more in the trenches, while Byron Murphy Jr. and Isaiah Rodgers have been part of a secondary that doesn’t need much name recognition to get the job done.
Flores deserves credit for the way he calls the defense, but the scheme only works because the players are executing it. Sunday was another reminder of that. Jones was held to 108 passing yards and an interception, and the Vikings have now allowed only 228 total passing yards over their last three games.
The schedule is about to ask a lot more of this unit. Over the next four weeks, Minnesota will face the Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers, and San Francisco 49ers.
For now, though, the Vikings have a defense that is rolling, and Cashman is one of the players making it happen.
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