The Chiefs are allowing more yards per play than any defense in league history and one of the players who has been criticized the most for the unit’s shortcomings is safety Daniel Sorensen.
Sorensen has missed tackles and blown coverages over the first five weeks of the regular season, which has led to calls for Juan Thornhill to see more playing time in the secondary. Sorensen’s role has not changed, however, and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said Thursday that Sorensen “has had a lot of good snaps” despite bad outside reviews.
Spagnuolo also said that all the blame for the defensive issues can’t be laid at the feet of one player.
“It’s not about one guy,” Spaunuolo said, via the Kansas City Star. “We haven’t been good, that’s a true statement. To focus on one person, I don’t think is fair. Did Dan struggle a little bit last week? Yeah. . . . Sometimes, when you have plays to the eye of everyone else look worse than other ones, nobody sees the plays that he’s making when you’re covering someone and they don’t throw it there. That’s always been the case.”
Whatever the ratio of good to bad plays for Sorensen, the ratio of good to bad for the defense as a whole is out of whack. That falls on Spagnuolo more than any individual player and a failure to fix it could lead to someone else getting a chance to see if they can fare better in the role.