ChiefsPlanet Mobile
Page 8 of 8
« First < 45678
Nzoner's Game Room>Fixing KC Chiefs’ defense can start with playing Juan Thornhill over Daniel Sorensen
Hammock Parties 08:48 AM 10-15-2021
CO SIGN

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...255010742.html

Originally Posted by :
Daniel Sorensen should be remembered as an important part of the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl championship in 50 years. He can be part of another winning team. Thus concludes this column’s run of nice words about Daniel Sorensen.

He should no longer be a starting safety for the Chiefs, starting with Sunday’s game at Washington. His deficiencies are not just outweighing his positive impact, but he has by now crossed that awful threshold from yeah-but-there-are-other-problems to holy-smokes-this-is-just-unsustainable. It’s time for Juan Thornhill to start, and for him to get the 98% of snaps that have so far been Sorensen’s.

“Overall we haven’t been good,” Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said. “That’s a true statement. That’s reality. To focus on one person I don’t think is fair. Did Dan struggle a little bit last week? Yeah.”

Spagnuolo is being gracious. Sorensen is Pro Football Focus’ third-lowest graded safety, earning the lowest tackling grade and fourth-lowest coverage grade among 61 safeties with at least 50% of their team’s snaps.

But we don’t need PFF’s numbers here. Sorensen has played poorly in all five games this season and was yell-out-loud terrible against the Bills. He repeatedly misses tackles and had two snaps where he was the primary coverage defender on passes that went for a combined 114 yards.

You might remember these as the plays where fellow safety Tyrann Mathieu threw his hands in the air in exasperation, and in the post-game press conference left no doubt what he was feeling.

“I felt like we were in a fairly decent coverage, so you don’t expect anybody to be wide open,” Mathieu said when asked about his hands-in-air pose. “I do that on good plays, as well. But, yeah. Kind of embarrassing.”

Mathieu is a good person to bring into this, actually. He is the heartbeat of the Chiefs’ defense, and has been since arriving as a free agent before the 2019 Super Bowl season. He hasn’t been great so far this season, either — nobody on defense has, really — but it’s hard to think of a solution to the Chiefs’ problems on defense that doesn’t involve Mathieu.

This is a little bit of speculation, but the situation is further complicated by Mathieu’s contract situation. Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has been clear that the team wants to sign Mathieu long-term, and Mathieu has said he’d like to stay.

The Chiefs can’t want these frustrations to change that dynamic, either by raising the price of an extension or by tempting Mathieu to look around. If Mathieu is saying these things out loud, then we can only imagine what he and others are saying and feeling in private.

This part is not speculation: Mathieu’s frustrations are a symptom of what everyone else in the locker room is seeing. Successful football teams are built largely on effort and cohesion, and nothing can torpedo morale more effectively than the feeling that a group isn’t all-in together. If 10 guys feel like they’re doing their job on a snap ruined by one man’s failure, well, that’s when guys start checking out.

This past week, leading up to the Washington game, happened to be one of those weeks in which the Chiefs made some of their assistant coaches available to media, including defensive backs coach Dave Merritt. He was asked about the primary problem in the secondary and referenced eye discipline three times in his answer. Then he was asked what he meant by that.

“If I’m looking at you and I’m supposed to be watching you, I gotta watch you,” Merritt said. “I can’t all of a sudden go watch someone else. So whether you’re coaching pop Warner, little league, your kids in basketball, if that’s your man, you teach your kids to cover that guy. “You don’t turn around and just start looking somewhere else: ‘Oh, there’s a bird, oh there’s a butterfly.’ No, you cover your guy. That’s what I mean.”

It was hard to hear that and not think about the long pass last Sunday to Bills tight end Dawson Knox. Sorensen was in good position on the play until he started looking back at the quarterback and lost track of his man.

The Chiefs have passed the point where they can still play Sorensen over Thornhill and retain credibility. And look, the problems are not all Sorensen’s fault. He’s doing the best he can. He is what he is — 31 years old, a regular starter for just the third time in eight years. A veteran with fading athleticism being regularly exposed by opponents who are increasingly thirsty over what they see on tape.

I want to be clear about something here. I’m not sure I’ve ever written a column calling for one player to rise above another on the depth chart. Not because I’ve never had my opinions, but because those opinions are outweighed by the fundamental truth that the coaches want to win and have vastly more information than sportswriters or fans.

And there must be some reason that Sorensen has been playing over Thornhill. Maybe there’s a confidence issue related to coming back from an ACL tear late in the 2019 season. Maybe it’s because he couldn’t take part in OTAs, and/or because he experienced a minor injury setback in the preseason. Maybe it’s something else that we have no way of seeing.

But the time has come. As a rookie, Thornhill and Tyrann Mathieu formed one of the league’s best safety pairings until Thornhill’s injury. At his best, Thornhill has the classic center-field range of a free safety, the speed to run with fast receivers and a skill-set that complements Mathieu’s.

At this point, if he’s not better than what we’ve seen from Sorensen, the Chiefs have even bigger problems than we thought.

[Reply]
staylor26 03:08 PM 10-18-2021
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
Yeah, it sucks that Veach can't do more than one thing at a time. Just imagine if he had focused on the draft!
I also love the narrative that he did nothing while they were waiting on Trent Williams when they literally signed Thuney and were clearly working on getting other guys like JuJu during that time.
[Reply]
tyreekthefreak 03:23 PM 10-18-2021
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
damn patrick absolutely savage

That can't be real?
[Reply]
Hammock Parties 03:30 PM 10-18-2021
it's an edit :-)
[Reply]
Hammock Parties 05:14 PM 10-18-2021

It's PFF, but...

Juan Thornhill had a 78.1 grade on Sunday. PFF credited him with giving up 2 receptions for -1 yard. He also played 100% of the snaps.

It was the WFT, but...I think that speaks for itself.

— Conner Christopherson (@Conner_DKC) October 18, 2021

[Reply]
Hammock Parties 12:29 PM 11-05-2021
Passing yards allowed by Chiefs defenders, best to worst.

Gay 19
Thornhill 71
Fenton 155
Mathieu 163
Hitchens 166
Ward 176
Niemann 193
Bolton 242
Hughes 252
Sneed 314
Sorensen 356
[Reply]
ThaVirus 12:36 PM 11-05-2021
Sneed's in a weird place. I feel like he's either making a huge play or a terrible play.

He's the only DB who can consistently pressure the QB, secure a sack, and blow up a screen or run in the backfield. Then he'll make a play like the one where he trips over his own feet on what would have been the easiest pick 6 of his career against the Giants or get torched by some garbage can TE.
[Reply]
staylor26 12:42 PM 11-05-2021
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
Sneed's in a weird place. I feel like he's either making a huge play or a terrible play.

He's the only DB who can consistently pressure the QB, secure a sack, and blow up a screen or run in the backfield. Then he'll make a play like the one where he trips over his own feet on what would have been the easiest pick 6 of his career against the Giants or get torched by some garbage can TE.
It’s almost as if he’s a young talented player that’s being asked to do a lot with very little help from our pass rush.

Sneed is fine, and would probably look much better if we had any kind of pass rush.
[Reply]
wachashi 12:46 PM 11-05-2021
I've got our next defensive strategy next time we're in a "got to have it" third-down situation.

Let's put Sorenson in knowing with 100% certainty that he'll be targeted. Line him up in what appears to be one-on-one coverage vs the other team's number one receiver for good measure.

The defense as a whole will immediately cheat over to Sorenson's man post-snap. QB is locked in on Sorenson and is too greedy to bail from his predetermined read, forcing a throw for an interception.

It's the Dirty Dan Decoy.

Game, blouses.
[Reply]
AdolfOliverBush 12:50 PM 11-05-2021
Originally Posted by staylor26:
It’s almost as if he’s a young talented player that’s being asked to do a lot with very little help from our pass rush.

Sneed is fine, and would probably look much better if we had any kind of pass rush.
Plus, he likely trying do his own job and cover for Sorenson at the same time. :-)
[Reply]
DJ's left nut 09:25 AM 09-14-2022
Thornhill's speed and range looks like it's back to his rookie year levels.

I'd really be trying hard to extend him. I know there are a few other FAs that need to be addressed but Reid/Thornhill/Cook for a team that utilizes 3 safety looks as often as we do would be just a spectacular 3-4 year setup. That's a true single high centerfielder in Juan, a downhill aggressive box safety in Cook and a bit of a hybrid of both in Reid.

He'd be my priority sign at this point and if you can get him on a discount deal, it's time to make it happen before he gets to the market. He's back - conduct yourself accordingly.
[Reply]
TwistedChief 09:30 AM 09-14-2022
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Thornhill's speed and range looks like it's back to his rookie year levels.

I'd really be trying hard to extend him. I know there are a few other FAs that need to be addressed but Reid/Thornhill/Cook for a team that utilizes 3 safety looks as often as we do would be just a spectacular 3-4 year setup. That's a true single high centerfielder in Juan, a downhill aggressive box safety in Cook and a bit of a hybrid of both in Reid.

He'd be my priority sign at this point and if you can get him on a discount deal, it's time to make it happen before he gets to the market. He's back - conduct yourself accordingly.
I completely agree but did you really have to bump this of all Thornhill threads to remind us that Spags' playing Sorenson over Thornhill was an actual thing?! Ugh. The defense at the beginning of last season was so tragic.

He did look great the other day. Truly flying around. Our secondary has the potential to be special.
[Reply]
RockChalk 12:17 PM 09-14-2022
Speaking of Dirty Dan, it would appear he was active but didn't play a single snap on defense. At least Saints coaches recognized right away what a worthless POS he is on defense.
[Reply]
BWillie 12:54 PM 09-14-2022
Originally Posted by RockChalk:
Speaking of Dirty Dan, it would appear he was active but didn't play a single snap on defense. At least Saints coaches recognized right away what a worthless POS he is on defense.
Spags would have him playing 30 snaps a game. Thank you Veach for protecting this man from himself.
[Reply]
DJ's left nut 01:00 PM 09-14-2022
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
I completely agree but did you really have to bump this of all Thornhill threads to remind us that Spags' playing Sorenson over Thornhill was an actual thing?! Ugh. The defense at the beginning of last season was so tragic.

He did look great the other day. Truly flying around. Our secondary has the potential to be special.
It was the most recent thread I could find with Thornhill in the title. Sorry.
[Reply]
mnchiefsguy 03:02 PM 09-14-2022
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Thornhill's speed and range looks like it's back to his rookie year levels.

I'd really be trying hard to extend him. I know there are a few other FAs that need to be addressed but Reid/Thornhill/Cook for a team that utilizes 3 safety looks as often as we do would be just a spectacular 3-4 year setup. That's a true single high centerfielder in Juan, a downhill aggressive box safety in Cook and a bit of a hybrid of both in Reid.

He'd be my priority sign at this point and if you can get him on a discount deal, it's time to make it happen before he gets to the market. He's back - conduct yourself accordingly.
I agree. Always liked the kid and am glad he is getting back to being the safety we thought we were getting when he was drafted.
[Reply]
Page 8 of 8
« First < 45678
Up