KC Chiefs: Under-the-radar impact players emerge in 2020 postseason

Daniel Sorensen

Daniel Sorensen has been a member of the Kansas City Chiefs for what seems like decades at this point. In actuality, he was an undrafted addition during the 2014 season by the John Dorsey front office. He’s one of the longest tenured Chiefs, and a stalwart of the Andy Reid tenure.

It wasn’t until his third season that Sorensen began to see some real playing time. Even then, he was considered by most in Chiefs Kingdom as a replaceable backup. There were several seasons in the early years where he was a hot topic when it came to notable Chiefs who might not make the offseason cuts.

Even so, Daniel Sorensen has remained and grown into a reliable commodity on a defense who’s production has been somewhat volatile over the last several seasons. His true value though has come in the postseason.

In the 2019 postseason, Sorensen was a major catalyst in the Chiefs’ epic comeback against the Houston Texans in the divisional round. On a pivotal fourth down in Chiefs territory, Sorensen sniffed out a fake punt and made a difficult open-field tackle to give the Chiefs offense incredible field position.

On the following kickoff, Sorensen delivered a devastating blow to the ball carrier sending the pigskin flying into the hands of Darwin Thompson who returned it to the Texans red zone. The Chiefs would score again and the route was on.

This season Sorensen has continued his quiet productivity, playing nearly 100 percent of the snaps for the last half of the season. Yet, it was the postseason again where he made his presence felt in the Divisional Round against the Cleveland Browns.

With 1:42 left in the second quarter, Sorensen made an integral play in the Chiefs advancing to their third straight AFC Championship game. Mayfield hit Tee Higgins for a 25-yard gain, but as Higgins dove for the pylon and the end zone Sorensen delivered a crushing blow. Higgins lost control of the ball and it bounced into the end zone and out of bounds for a touchback.

Similarly to Henne’s heroics, given the Chiefs absolute dominance against the Bills, this is one of those plays that’s easy to forget. That said, if Sorensen hadn’t made that play the Chiefs would likely not be in the Super Bowl.