Michael
Danna.
Michael
Danna.
Michigan
"Danna is the rotational end teams stop noticing until they count how many meaningful snaps he has played for a championship defense."Pre-draft read
A dense, heavy-handed defensive end who plays with leverage instead of length, Danna wins by getting under pads and pushing the pocket. He sets a firm edge against the run, locks out with strong hands, and squeezes down inside on combo blocks, which is why he stayed on the field on early downs at two very different programs.
The rush is effort and power rather than bend. He converts speed to power through the tackle's outside shoulder, works a hard club-rip, and chases from the back side, but he lacks the ankle flexion to flatten around the arc. He can slide inside to rush over a guard in sub packages. The signature is relentlessness, snap after snap.
Four-man front that rotates its ends heavily and asks the base end to set a hard edge before the sub package takes over
Year 1 early-down run-defending end in a four-man rotation; ceiling is a 700-snap starter who contributes five to seven sacks a year.
A wide-9 speed-rush scheme that asks its ends to win one-on-one off the edge with bend and length as the primary job description.
Put him in a deep rotation and the motor stays fresh late, which is when most of his production actually arrives.
Michael Danna College Highlights
The Chiefs own pre-draft cutup covering both the Central Michigan breakout and the Michigan season.
Michael Danna | 2019 Highlights
His lone season at Michigan, showing the leverage and edge-setting against Big Ten tackles.
Michael Danna AFC Championship Game Highlights vs CIN
The NFL payoff: a full playoff game of pressure production as a rotational end in Kansas City.
Danna is a Michigan story twice over. He spent three seasons at Central Michigan, grew from a 31-tackle freshman into a 66-tackle, 15-TFL, 9.5-sack junior who was named PFF All-American First Team, then graduate-transferred to Michigan for his final year rather than declaring off the MAC breakout.
That last decision complicated the evaluation. At Michigan he played a different role in a rotation full of NFL bodies and his numbers fell to 38 tackles, three for loss and three sacks in 13 games. Evaluators had to decide whether the Big Ten tape was a downgrade or simply a smaller sample in a deeper front. What did not change was the play strength and the motor; what also did not change was the lack of length and the absence of a true bend-and-corner element.
Boards had him as a Day 3 rotational base end, a fifth-to-sixth round grade with a clear floor and a modest ceiling. Kansas City, a year removed from a Super Bowl and rebuilding its defensive front around Frank Clark and Chris Jones, took him at 177 as a rotation piece who could play the run on early downs.
- 01
Play strength
he plays from under the pads and holds the point against down blocks, which made him a legitimate early-down run defender in both leagues.
- 02
Motor and pursuit
he finishes plays away from the ball, and the effort rushes became real production once the snaps came.
- 03
Interior flexibility
at 6-foot-2 and 261 pounds he can reduce inside and rush over a guard in sub packages rather than being a pure edge.
- 04
Hand usage
the club-rip and the long-arm arrive with intent, and he resets a blocker's chest rather than absorbing contact first.
- 05
Splash history
9.5 sacks, 15 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles in his junior breakout at Central Michigan showed the ceiling when he was the focal point.
- 01
Length
short arms limit his ability to hold off tackles at distance and to disengage once a long blocker gets inside his frame.
- 02
Bend
he cannot flatten around the corner, so the speed rush stalls and everything funnels back to power and counters.
- 03
Production drop
three sacks and three tackles for loss in his lone Michigan season left the MAC breakout as the only elite statistical year.
- 04
Pass-rush plan
he can be neutralized by tackles who set with good hands early, because the counter menu behind the initial move was thin.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Central Michigan | 13 | 31 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2017 | Central Michigan | 13 | 54 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Central Michigan | 12 | 66 | 9.5 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2019 | Michigan | 13 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 51 | 189 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Sports-Reference season lines including bowl games; the four seasons sum exactly to the 51-game, 189-tackle, 32-TFL, 18.0-sack, five-forced-fumble career total. Starts are not published by season, so they are left blank rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational base end who plays a decade by defending the run and converting effort rushes into mid-single-digit sacks.
Power-based end without elite bend who becomes a durable, high-snap starter through hands and leverage.
Big-bodied end whose lack of a rush plan keeps him on the fringe of the rotation and out of a second contract.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City used him exactly as advertised and then watched him outgrow the job. He played 13 games with 24 tackles and 2.5 sacks as a rookie and won a conference title in his first season, then increased his sack total in each of his first four years: three in 2021, five in 2022, and a career-high 6.5 in 2023, when he logged 745 defensive snaps, second among Chiefs linemen, and produced the third-most pressures on a defense that allowed the second-fewest points in football. The Chiefs re-signed him in April 2024. He added 3.5 sacks in 13 games in 2024 and one in 15 games in 2025 before signing with Buffalo for 2026. He owns two Super Bowl rings.
In hindsight this is a strong fifth-round hit. Danna has played 88 regular-season games with 21.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss, and he was a real contributor on a defense that won championships rather than a body who happened to be in the building. The flaws evaluators identified never went away: he is not a premium pass rusher and he has never been asked to be. But a pick at 177 that returns six seasons of rotational-to-starting edge play, plus a second contract with the drafting team, is a clear win.