After suffering a non-contact hamstring injury in the season opener, Minnesota Vikings starting linebacker Blake Cashman‘s season could take a serious turn for the worse.
After head coach Kevin O’Connell said that they are weighing roster decisions that could come with their latest injury report, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero revealed that Cashman’s landing on the injured reserve (IR) list is under consideration.
“First of all, Blake Cashman might end up on injured reserve, which would knock him out for four games. It sounds like that’s a real consideration,” Pelissero said Thursday, September 11 on KFAN’s “Power Trip Morning Show.”
A placement on the IR list would require Cashman to miss four games before he can be activated to the 53-man roster. It would be ideal for the Vikings to make the move this week with just four games to go until their Week 6 bye.
Pelissero said the decision will likely come Saturday before a Week 2 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons.
“We’ll probably get an answer on that around Saturday, which is when teams typically make IR moves,” Pelissero added. “But regardless, he’s going to miss some time here.”
Update (2:09 p.m. ET): The Vikings placed Cashman on the injured reserve list, making his earliest availability to return Week 7 vs. the Eagles.
Blake Cashman’s Concerning Injury History Doesn’t Evade Vikings
GettyBlake Cashman #51 of the Minnesota Vikings reacts after making a play against the New York Jets.
A native of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Cashman signed a three-year, $22.5 million contract with the Vikings in March 2024 — a welcome homecoming for the University of Minnesota alumnus.
It was a modest bet on Cashman, who had injury struggles throughout his rookie contract but pieced together two healthy seasons with the Houston Texans.
A fifth-round pick by the New York Jets in 2019, Cashman played in just 14 games in his first three seasons, landing on the injured reserve list four times in that span. He missed just three games in his two seasons in Houston before arriving in Minnesota.
Last season, Cashman missed three games with a turf toe injury, which proved devastating for the Viking defense, which allowed nearly 400 yards in their first two losses to the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions.
Vikings Reunion With Eric Wilson Already Seeing Dividends
GettyVikings linebacker Eric Wilson (50) reunited with the Vikings for the 2025 season after five seasons away from the team that drafted him in 2017.
Cashman leaving the Bears game for the final quarter could have spelled ruin for the Vikings, which were down by 11 points following a pix-six from J.J. McCarthy.
Instead, the defense remained stout, with veteran linebacker Eric Wilson reemerging for the team.
Undrafted in 2017, Wilson was the understudy to Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks before making stops with the Philadelphia Eagles, Texans and Green Bay Packers following his rookie deal.
Wilson’s return couldn’t have come at a better time.
He stepped into Cashman’s green-dot role of relaying the defensive play calls to the rest of the defense seamlessly. Wilson tallied five combined tackles, a tackle for loss and deflected a punt that was necessary to the comeback win.
“You’re always looking for that veteran presence, and he’s a player that — I don’t know if we win the football game unless you have Eric Wilson to not only, I mean, he had the [partially] blocked punt, but just the way he goes in and he’s green-dottin’ and calling it,” O’Connell said after the game. “You want to see a prototype of a veteran guy that helps your football team win by any means necessary? It’s Eric Wilson.”
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