Vikings Rule Out Key Starting Defender for Week 8
The Minnesota Vikings are set to take on the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football to begin Week 8 action.
The game comes just days after Minnesota suffered its first loss of the season to the Detroit Lions; a loss that cost Minnesota their position atop the NFC. Now, on a short week, the Vikings have ruled out a key defender for the second consecutive game.
Vikings Rule Out Key Defender
That defender is LB Blake Cashman, who has quickly emerged as a constant contributor for Minnesota’s defense this season.
Minnesota announced the decision via a post on X. Additionally, Minnesota ruled a trio of players as questionable:
- CB Akayleb Evans
- TE T.J. Hockenson
- IOL Dalton Risner
Cashman has been dealing with turf toe, and the injury held Cashman out of the Week 7 loss to the Lions, thus forcing Ivan Pace to be essentially the lone linebacker on defense for Minnesota along with the Swiss Army knife who is safety Josh Metellus.
When on the field, Cashman has been a force for Minnesota this season, totaling 40 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, and five passes defended. His PFF grade of 75.6 ranks ninth among 63 linebackers with at least 200 defensive snaps this season.
Cashman has proven to be the perfect replacement for Jordan Hicks, who left the Vikings this past offseason to join the Cleveland Browns while also being nearly four years younger than Hicks. If Cashman were to miss this week’s game, the Vikings will miss his pass coverage skills against a talented group of Rams pass catchers.
Luckily, the Vikings still have not ruled out their star tight end Hockenson at this point, meaning there is a glimmer of hope that he could return for the first time in 10 months.
Kickoff between the Rams and Vikings is at 7:15 Central on Thursday night inside SoFi Stadium.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via Pro Football Focus and Pro Football Reference.
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