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In the aftermath of Super LV, the Kansas City Chiefs will be tasked with building a roster to get them back to the Super Bowl for a third consecutive year. Brett Veach will have a decision to make on a number of unrestricted free agents this offseason, many of whom contributed to the success of this franchise over the past two seasons. One of those players is safety Daniel Sorensen.
Sorensen is the longest-tenured defender in Kansas City, joining the team as an undrafted free agent out of BYU back in 2014. He started off as a special teams player and eventually worked his way up, becoming a rotational piece used in the Chiefs’ defense. Sorensen didn’t earn his first start on defense until the 2016 season. He had a career season that year, with just under 550 defensive snaps.
In 2017, Sorensen signed a four-year contract extension worth $16 million. For the most part, he’s lived up to the contract in terms of production, with seven interceptions, eight passes defended, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and 1.5 sacks since he signed his deal. In 2018, Sorensen suffered a leg injury in training camp that hampered his season. He appeared in just seven games, including three starts and was clearly working his way back from the injury when he was on the field.
When Steve Spagnuolo and his staff arrived in 2019, Sorensen was one of the few holdovers from the previous defensive staff. They sought to utilize him in a similar way as Bob Sutton’s staff, as a sub-package defender. He didn’t see quite as many snaps early on because of the breakout of then-rookie Juan Thornhill. With Thornhill recovering from injury this season, Sorensen took on a more prominent role early on, recording the most defensive snaps he’s seen in a single season since 2017.
Chiefs fans have a love-hate relationship with Sorensen. At times, he makes the most clutch, game-saving plays. Look no further than his forced fumble against Cleveland Browns WR Rashard Higgins in the AFC’s divisional round of the playoffs. He really earns his monicker, “Dirty Dan” in those moments. At other times, he has some frustrating missed tackles and is a liability in coverage.
With a truncated salary cap number in 2021, the logical move might be to cut ties with the 31-year-old Sorensen. He’s coming off a year where he matched or exceeded several career statistical totals, which could lead to a big contract in free agency. The problem with cutting ties is that Sorensen is not going to be an easy player to replace.
Sorensen was on the field this year in the team’s base, dime and big nickel packages, playing nearly 85% of the defensive snaps on the year. He also played just under 40% of the team’s snaps on special teams. If the team moves on, some of the slack could be picked up by players on the roster, but it’s hard to imagine a single player replacing him in free agency or the draft. It might take an entire village of players to replace his snaps and his defensive production.
The Chiefs have a few players on the roster who could take a stab at replacing Sorensen, like fourth-year DB Armani Watts or second-year DB Rodney Clemons. Neither player is a clear and given upgrade over Sorensen, though. If the Chiefs can manage to bring back Sorensen without breaking the bank, they should jump at the opportunity to do so. If he has a big market in free agency, they might be forced to watch a homegrown player walk out the door.
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