KC Chiefs will start Juan Thornhill over Dan Sorensen
By Matt Conner
It’s a move that most of us have been waiting for this season in a way to shake up soothing on the defense. NFL reporter Ian Rapoport has word that Daniel Sorensen will be moved out of the starting rotation at safety in order to make room for Juan Thornhill as the Chiefs hope for a different defensive outcome in Week 6 than the pitiful numbers allowed through the season’s first five games.
Thornhill is a former second round pick who has been relegated to the bench in year three for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, Sorensen looks older than ever and has been part of an overall defense suffering miscommunication and missed tackles in a miserable first five games.
The Chiefs are going with Juan Thornhill over Dan Sorensen.
Sorensen should not be seen as a scapegoat for the entirety of the Chiefs’ defensive struggles in 2021. After all, Sorensen is hardly responsible for the inability of anyone in the defensive front to get a push whatsoever, from the edge or the interior. Sorensen also is not alone in missing tackles or taking poor angles in coverage in the second level as the team’s linebackers have also struggled to cover anyone and everyone.
Even in the secondary, it’s not as if the unit has been one safety change away from being elite—or even good. Young corners have proven inconsistent game to game, and key contributors like Mike Hughes haven’t yielded the desired results.
It should be noted that the Chiefs have dealt with multiple injuries on defense to Willie Gay Jr., Charvarius Ward, Frank Clark, Chris Jones, Rashad Fenton and others, so it’s not as if the unit has been at full-strength. Still, this is a team that ranks at the absolute bottom in total points allowed and yards/play as opposing offenses are allowed to move through them like a warm knife through butter.