Blake Cashman’s Sunday in Indianapolis was the kind of performance that keeps showing up on highlight reels and, now, on league award sheets.
The NFL announced Wednesday that the Vikings linebacker has been named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for Week 7 of the 2026 season after Minnesota’s 16-10 win over the Colts.
Cashman was everywhere in that game. He piled up 12 tackles, including eight solo stops and two tackles for loss, while also delivering two sacks, three quarterback hits, and four passes defended.
The sacks were a career high. It was also the twentieth game of his NFL career with at least ten tackles, and the sixteenth since he joined the Vikings.
What made the outing even more remarkable was the consistency behind it. Sunday marked Cashman’s seventeenth straight game with at least seven tackles, the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest by a Viking dating back to at least 1987. He also became the first player to log two sacks and four passes defended in a game since Alex Brown of the Chicago Bears in 2005, and the first since at least 1982 - when sacks began being tracked leaguewide - to finish with at least 12 tackles, two sacks, and four passes defended in the same game.
For Minnesota, the award keeps a busy weekly run going. Through seven weeks, this is the fifth time a Viking has earned league honors. The only exceptions came in Week 1, when Minnesota beat Green Bay, and in Week 6, when the team was on its bye.
The Vikings have already had Isaiah Rodgers, Myles Price, and Will Reichard win NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in Weeks 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Price also picked up NFC Special Teams Player of the Month for September. Byron Murphy then took NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 5.
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Jonathan Taylor Just Showed The Vikings What They're Missing
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For Minnesota, the reminder is obvious: a back like Taylor changes the feel of a game and gives an offense a different kind of edge. It is easy to see why his fit would be appealing here, even if the reality around any pursuit is more complicated, with no indication the Colts are eager to move him. [Read more 🡒]