The Minnesota Vikings played a football game this past Sunday. And, because it’s now Wednesday, that means it’s time for one of their players to be recognized with a weekly award from the National Football League.
The league has just announced that Vikings’ linebacker Blake Cashman has been named the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week for Week 7 of the 2026 NFL season.
If it
seemed like Cashman was all over the place in the Vikings’ 16-10 victory over the Indianapolis Colts this past Sunday, that’s only because. . .well, he was. Cashman recorded 12 tackles on the afternoon, including eight solo tackles and two tackles for loss. He also had two quarterback sacks (a career high), three quarterback hits, and four passes defended. It was the twentieth game of his NFL career with at least ten tackles, and his sixteenth since joining the Vikings.
Sunday’s game was also the seventeenth straight game where Cashman recorded at least seven tackles, which is the longest current streak in the NFL and the longest streak for a Viking dating back to at least 1987. He’s the first player to have two sacks and four passes defended in a game since Alex Brown of the Chicago Bears did so in 2005, and the first player since at least 1982 (when the NFL first started recording sacks) to have at least twelve tackles, two sacks, and four passes defended in a game.
Seems like a pretty solid outing, all things considered.
We’re now seven weeks into the season, and this is the fifth week where a member of the Vikings has been recognized with a weekly award. The only weeks where a Viking was not recognized were Week 1 when they defeated the Packers and Week 6 when they were on their bye week. Cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, return specialist Myles Price, and kicker Will Reichard were named NFC Special Teams Players of the Week in Weeks 2, 3, and 4, respectively (with Price being named the NFC’s Special Teams Player of the Month for September for good measure), with cornerback Byron Murphy being recognized as the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week in Week 5.
Congratulations to Blake Cashman for being named the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week for Week 7 of the 2026 NFL season!
