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The Kansas City Chiefs have a tackling problem and right at the cusp of their problem is veteran DB Daniel Sorensen.
Sorensen has been the only Chiefs defender to play 100% of the defensive snaps for the team in back-to-back weeks. He’s also been good for a clutch play or two in each game so far, which is normal for the eight-year veteran. Still, it’s hard to ignore the glaring issues that he’s had when attempting to make tackles this season.
According to Pro Football Focus, Sorensen leads the NFL in missed tackles with nine missed tackles through the first two weeks of the season. That’s three more missed tackles than the next closest defender and seven more missed tackles than anyone else on the Chiefs.
If Sorensen continues to play 100% of the defensive snaps and miss tackles at his current rate, he’ll have 76 missed tackles at the end of Week 17. To put that number into context, the defender with the most missed tackles in 2020 had 22 missed tackles.
While Sorensen was missing tackles left and right on Sunday, third-year S Juan Thornhill played just 11 defensive snaps against the Baltimore Ravens. Asked about the decision to go with Sorensen over Thornhill, Chiefs HC Andy Reid said he’ll eventually get his chance to play.
“Juan and Dan (Sorensen), they do certain things the same and a couple of things different,” Reid told reporters on Monday. “It all kind of equals out and Dan really had the better camp and so on. Maybe a little bit more consistency there, but we love Juan and where he’s getting himself back to where he was his rookie year. I don’t want to take anything away from the effort that he’s put forward to do that. They all get a chance to play. I think we’ll take it step-by-step here and can’t have enough of those guys that can play.”
You can rest assured that the opportunity for Thornhill might come sooner than later if Sorensen continues to miss tackles at an excessive rate.
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