What should the Kansas City Chiefs do about Dan Sorensen’s future?

What should the Chiefs do after Dan Sorensen’s contract runs out?

Daniel Sorensen is one of those guys who the Kansas City Chiefs have been thankful to have over the past couple of years. You can likely think of many plays that he’s been involved with over the years. The first one that comes to mind is the tackle he made against the Houston Texans on a fake punt that gave the Chiefs life when there seemed to be none. Also in that same game, he forced a fumble on a kickoff that further closed their deficit. He is also a fan favorite, which puts the Chiefs in a tough situation. Should Kansas City give him an extension? Let’s take a look.

As for his on-field production, Sorensen is having his worst graded season since 2015. According to Pro Football Focus, he has an overall grade of 54.1, which puts him 72nd out of 89 qualifying safeties. There are admitted issues with just using PFF as a measuring stick, but this is obviously not a good look for someone that is trying to stay with the same team after this year. Another thing to note is that out of those 89 qualifying safeties, Sorensen ranks 2nd to last at 88th in run defense. That is quite alarming given that the Chiefs struggle to stop the run this season. If Sorensen happened to be an elite run defender, that would obviously give the Chiefs reason to re-sign him.

Now, let’s turn to things you just can’t measure. Although Sorensen’s PFF grades aren’t the best, like I mentioned above, he happens to be in the right places at the right times on a consistent basis. There are a few instances of this in the current season with two interceptions that were big for the Chiefs this season. The first he returned for a touchdown against the Denver Broncos. The Chiefs were only up three at the time against Denver, then Sorensen intercepted Drew Lock and really broke the game open for K.C. They won in convincing fashion after that 43-16. The second moment was his game-sealing interception against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Chiefs just went down to take the lead 35-31 and the Raiders had 28 seconds to try and go the length of the field and Sorensen came up with an interception with 17 seconds left to ice it.

There also needs to be something said about being a veteran leader on the roster. He is a guy who has been on the roster for seven years and knows now what it takes to win. There isn’t a metric or stat that can account for leadership like that. He’s known for his hard work ethic and film study as well. With the chemistry this team has also, the more guys like this that you can keep in house the better. You always want to do your best to keep the culture the same, especially if you’re a constant winner like the Chiefs have been these years under Andy Reid.

At the end of the day though, unless the Chiefs are going to get a substantial hometown discount, I think Sorensen is someone the Chiefs should let go. I believe they can find the value that Sorensen brings and potentially more somewhere in the draft. Sorensen was an undrafted free agent when the Chiefs brought him onto the roster in 2014. Brett Veach and the front office have done a really good job at finding talent later in the draft also, so I think the Chiefs need to let Sorensen walk this free agency and look to address the safety position somewhere in the later rounds of the draft.