How the Kansas City Chiefs can free up significant cap space
By Scott Loring
3. Dirty Dan
Whew. This is a hard subject for me. A year ago, or even six months ago, I would have said that K.C. couldn’t cut Daniel Sorensen soon enough, but, as I observed last week, Sorensen came around as a key element of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.
What sparked this sixth-year veteran into another gear in 2019? Was it the leadership of fellow safety Tyrann Mathieu? Was there added motivation after beginning the season as a nickel safety behind rookie Juan Thornhill? Regardless, Sorensen once seemed like a certain cap casualty, now this has to be up for question. Let’s look at the dollars.
Sorensen has one year remaining on his deal, and will be a $4.75 million cap hit in 2020. However the team can recoup $3.75 million by releasing Sorensen. He’ll turn 30 this year, so he’s not likely to sign a long-term extension after that. But we think he earned that final year of his contract with his performance in 2019.
A couple other factors will help steer the decision here. What is the trajectory of Thornhill’s recovery from a torn ACL in Week 17? If the team doesn’t think he’ll be quite ready for Week 1 in September, Sorensen would likely be the next in line. After the rookie went down in that final regular-season game against the Chargers, Sorensen did not miss another defensive snap, in that game or in any of the team’s three postseason games. That speaks volumes about how the team valued his contributions.
However, is Sorensen fit to play centerfield? With Mathieu entrenched as Spagnuolo’s do-it-all safety, the need is for a reliable cover man to play that deep middle, and while no one can deny Dirty Dan’s ability to come up big when it mattered most in 2019, a lot of his use was in the box and in nickel situations. It is important to try to separate the emotional feelings that stem from emotional plays (Sorensen made a lot of them) from the numbers game. The Chiefs could save some money by releasing Dirty Dan, but they’ll only do that if they think they really have to.