The Kansas City Chiefs gave safety Daniel Sorensen a contract extension before the 2017 season. It seems Sorensen has been exposed this season and will be expensive next.
The 2017 offseason had plenty of drama from cuts, signings, extensions, and draft picks. Safety Daniel Sorensen received an extension during this time after playing a good year as a third safety in the Kansas City Chiefs defense. In Sorensen’s limited role, he accounted for 3 interceptions in 2016 returning one for a touchdown.
One of the last signings that former Chiefs general manager John Dorsey made was to give Daniel Sorensen an extension over four years earning $16 million. Fans were torn on the decision especially with the team’s current salary cap concerns. Some of Sorensen’s play this season has only fueled the fire in that argument tilting the discussion.
Sorensen has seen a big uptick in snaps this year after the injury of star safety Eric Berry. Since stepping into the bigger role, Sorensen has shown some imperfections in his play. Unfortunately, being asked to step into a larger responsibility has exposed Sorensen’s weaknesses.
In 2016, Sorensen played more of a robber/spy role, which kept him from being responsible for specific assignments and let him focus primarily on the quarterback’s eyes. This was the best role for Sorensen in my opinion based off what we have watched this season. Sorensen isn’t a great safety but when he is able to just focus on where the quarterback is looking, he brings in some big plays.
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Sorensen does lead the Chiefs defense in tackles this year, but that is more of a statement of how bad the Chiefs defense has been much of the year. The playmaking ability from Sorensen has dropped hauling in only one interception on the year—a pick against Shane Vereen, the New York Giants running back, on a trick play. That’s not something you want to see after getting a big uptick in snaps. He’s also shown to be much less versatile than other safeties. The Chiefs like their safeties to be able to play anywhere on the defense and make an impact.
Oftentimes fans take for granted what they have in certain players, and when they are gone due to injury, we expect the same level of play from their backups. That player gets held to the same standard as the starter whether we realize it or not. Sorensen is by no means Eric Berry, but the drop off is much greater than fans expected when Berry was first injured in week one.
Berry is a profoundly versatile safety who can play just about anywhere in the defense. One of the biggest roles created with his loss is in the team’s run defense, where Berry does an excellent job of finding the holes and laying a punishing hit on the running back. Sorensen, however, often gets pushed out of the play. The Chiefs struggled against the run enormously until they decided to put in another inside linebacker instead of bringing Sorensen down to the box in obvious run situations.
One of the worst roles that Sorensen has played was when left single high against the first Oakland Raiders matchup. I’m sure most of you recall the defense getting torched most of the game against Carr and the Raiders offense. Sorensen was late to jump routes and pick up receivers resulting in numerous big gains. He’s additionally taken bad angles to ball carriers, resulting in bigger gains.
To be fair, the whole Chiefs defense has regressed in 2017 after Berry went down in week one. Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton failed to make changes to the defense with Berry being out and linebacker Derrick Johnson not playing up to his usual standards. In a defense that is revolved around a few great players, it’s not entirely on Sorensen for his regressions although there are still issues that raise questions with the amount of money he is getting from this contract.
Sorensen will cost $4.8 million to keep on the team next season and it would cost the Chiefs $3 million in dead money to cut him. With the amount of money the Chiefs will have due to other probable cuts this offseason, I think it’s worth giving Sorensen another shot and see what he can do with Berry back on the field.
Questions going forward
- Will Sorensen be able to live up to the contract extension given to him by John Dorsey?
- How involved was new general manager Brett Veach involved with the extension?
- If Bob Sutton is replaced next year, will Sorensen have a role in the possibly new defense?