Sports

Help is on the way for the Vikings' defense.

Minnesota has opened linebacker Blake Cashman's 21-day practice window as he returns from a stint on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.

Cashman suffered the injury in Minnesota's Week 1 victory over the Bears.

Cashman is in his second season with Minnesota after recording 112 total tackles with 4.5 sacks in 2024.

"Will be great to get 'Cash' back on the practice field," head coach Kevin O'Connell said in his Monday press conference, via Lindsey Young of the team’s website. "He's done a heck of a job getting himself ready to go, and we'll give him the week of preparation and see where he's at toward the tail end of the week.”

While edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel is progressing with his neck injury, O’Connell was unable to give a timeframe for his return.

“He's going to be working on a side field early on this week," O'Connell said. "And then what I see is, you know, his workload hopefully picking up as we go. I don't really have an update on his availability for Sunday yet. Want to kind of see how he does with some of that side-field work.”

Van Ginkel has not played since the Week 3 win over the Bengals.

The Vikings are expecting J.J. McCarthy (ankle), Donovan Jackson (wrist), Michael Jurgens (hamstring), and Brian O'Neill (knee) to all practice in some capacity over the coming days as Minnesota gets set to host Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon.

The Tennessee Titans have announced that coach Brian Callahan is out. The Titans have not yet announced his interim replacement.

There aren't many obvious candidates on the current coaching staff. Callahan's father, Bill, has head-coaching experience (he took the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2002), but it would be awkward, to say the least, for the team to give him the keys. Or for the elder Callahan to take them.

Former Chargers coach Mike McCoy serves as a senior offensive assistant in Tennessee, so he could take the reins for the remainder of the season.

The Titans also could go outside the building, like the Colts did in 2022, hiring former Colts center Jeff Saturday. And, unlike Saturday, there's a former Titans great who currently is coaching a mid-major college program — and who was interviewed for an NFL job in the most recent cycle.

Eddie George.

Whether he'd leave Bowling Green is a different issue. His buyout would be in the range of $2 million. But he'd be in line for a significant pay increase, since he's making roughly $600,000 per year in his current gig.

Then there's Mike McCarthy. He had no buyout in Dallas, and he's available immediately. He and Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker worked together in Green Bay, for multiple years.

Regardless, the Titans didn't announce the interim coach at the time they announced the firing of the current one. With a game against former Patriots coach Mike Vrabel only six days away, the clock is ticking. Loudly.