Earlier this week, Kansas City Chiefs fans were hoping that the team would find a way to make one or two trades to bolster their defensive line for the second-half push. The Chiefs’ defense entered the bye week with 20 sacks, which is good for 17th in the league.
George Karlaftis is shouldering a lot of the workload for the Chiefs with a team-high five sacks. As for the other defensive ends on the roster (Charles Omenihu, Mike Danna, and Ashton Gillotte), they’ve only mustered a combined 3.5 sacks.
Omenhiu has the most sacks among that group with 2, but he’s not a starter. Danna is, and he only has one sack thus far, which has frustrated fans. Knowing this, the Chiefs reportedly tried to make “a late strong push” to land Seattle Seahawks veteran linebacker Boye Mafe, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
However, Schefter added that Seattle opted to hold onto Mafe right before the deadline, despite one source thinking the trade between the Chiefs and Seahawks was completed.
Chiefs’ Failed Trade Puts Immense Pressure on Mike Danna for 2nd Half of Season
As you can imagine, Kansas City fans weren’t enthused to hear this report from Schefter, as it was another example of GM Brett Veach coming up short. Earlier this week, we found out that the Chiefs had inquired about New York Jets RB Breece Hall, but didn’t want to meet the Jets’ asking price.
That being said, with the Chiefs coming up short in their pursuit of Mafe, KC fans will hope that it lights a fire under the 27-year-old Danna, who has been disappointing this season. In addition to the one sack, Danna only has three quarterback pressures, three QB hits, two tackles for loss, and an interception.
While the interception is great, the fact that he’s struggling to get the QB is not what the Chiefs had in mind when they signed him to a three-year, $24 million contract in April 2024. Danna was coming off a career-high 6.5 sack season and 21 QB pressures in 2023.
But since then, Danna has only amassed 4.5 sacks and 14 quarterback pressures in his last 20 regular-season games.
According to Pro Football Focus, the 6-foot-2, 257-pound defender has a pedestrian pass rush grade (57.0, 88th among 110 EDGEs) and an okay run defense grade (60.5, 61st) this season.
Meanwhile, Mafe, whom the Chiefs tried to acquire, has a 70.5 pass-rush grade (ranked 42nd), despite not recording any sacks this year. However, he has 22 QB pressures. If you’re the Chiefs, you’d like to see Danna start to apply more pressure if he’s not going to get any sacks.
He has a chance to change the narrative about himself next week against the Denver Broncos, which is a must-win game for KC. Broncos starting QB Bo Nix has only been sacked 10 times, however, so it won’t be easy to bring him down.
But can Danna muddy the pocket and make Nix uncomfortable? That will be the key. If he does, then that will be a step in the right direction.
However, if Danna disappoints again, Kansas City should consider giving more snaps to other guys. And in the offseason, the Chiefs should also think about using the out in Danna’s contract for 2026, which will only incur a $2 million dead cap hit.