What could Daniel Sorensen be for the 2016 Kansas City Chiefs?
As we have seen over the last three seasons under Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton, he sure has an infatuation with the safety position. This is because he uses some of his safeties as hybrids, deploying them in a multitude of ways.
If your playing the position under Sutton, one could go from their normal safety spot, to slot corner, and to nickel linebacker in just a series of plays. The DC in KC has gotten very creative in his tenure, and it has led to some very impressive campaigns for the Chiefs’ defensive unit. He values that versatile secondary player who can jump all around his defense and contribute.
We have seen it with Ron Parker and Husain Abdullah. We also saw it in 2013 with Quintin Demps, 2014 with Kurt Coleman, and 2015 with Tyvon Branch. If you were unaware, Branch actually played for the most part in the slot in 2015 after the injury to Phillip Gaines.
The Chiefs have been four or five-deep at safety over the last couple of years, and it goes to show how much they value the position.
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This is a trend in the NFL today, the hybrid safety who can jump down to linebacker or play corner. The Arizona Cardinals, for example, possess two tremendous players who do just that: Deone Bucannon and Tyrann Mathieu. Both being naturally listed as safeties, Bucannon has pretty much transitioned to linebacker while Mathieu plays a lot of corner for the Cardinals, a bonus that will most likely earn him more money in contract negotiations.
Getting back to the Chiefs, they have lost two of their rotational safeties this offseason in Branch and Abdullah. Coincidentally enough, Branch is heading to Arizona. Abdullah has retired. Who will step up and play the “Swiss Army Knife” role on this defense now? Many will point to Marcus Cooper and Jamell Fleming, former corners who are now getting looks at safety. But how about Daniel Sorensen?
Next: What he brings to the table...