A rookie’s impression of Seattle Seahawks’ new coaches from UW

There’s a good amount of intrigue around the new Seattle Seahawks coaching staff this year, particularly to when it comes to a pair of assistants who are familiar names in town.

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The Seahawks’ new offensive coordinator is Ryan Grubb, who was the OC for the UW Huskies the past two seasons, and he brought along offensive line coach Scott Huff with him from Montlake.

One person who’s been able to get an idea of their coaching styles is rookie guard Christian Haynes, the UConn product who the Seahawks took in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Haynes took part in Seattle’s annual rookie minicamp at team headquarters in Renton last weekend, and he shared his thoughts on Huff and Grubb when he joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Wednesday.

Haynes was most effusive about Huff, who was with UW from 2017 through last season’s run to the College Football Playoff Championship game and oversaw the Huskies unit that won the 2023 Joe Moore Award as the best O-line in country.

“I love Coach Huff so far. He’s just a real technique-based guy,” Haynes said. “Like, you can have the right angles, but he really harps (on) the technique, and I really love that in an O-line coach because in this league you need to have great technique to be able to block the best defenders possible. And I love that how, like, even though I’m doing a good job, he’s harping on even make me even better. I love that (from) an offensive line coach as a player.”

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Grubb, who followed Kalen DeBoer to UW from Fresno State, has also made his presence known with Seattle’s young offensive linemen.

“Coach Grubb, he’s a great guy as well,” Haynes said. “Being around the offensive line… talking to us, giving us his own perspective of things. Like, I remember (Grubb saying) we have to communicate more and (that) the defense is communicating back off of the line, to make sure we’re getting everything we need possibly done so we are able to execute the play correctly. Just having him as another tool, it just really helps us out as an offensive line.”

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with Seattle Seahawks offensive guard Christian Haynes in the podcast at this link or in either the video or audio player near the top of this post.

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