Will Christian Haynes impact Seahawks’ interior OL?

Jul 13, 2024, 10:09 AM | Updated: 2:10 pm

Seattle Sports

When it comes to guards from the University of Connecticut, most minds are probably heading to the basketball court. But that’s not the case currently in the Pacific Northwest, where the guard from UConn does his work on the football field with the Seattle Seahawks.

Why it’s a make-or-break year for Seahawks CB Tre Brown

Seattle invested a third-round pick in UConn guard Christian Haynes in this year’s NFL Draft, and there’s hope that he can become a much-needed force on the interior of the Seahawks’ offensive line.

Haynes, a 6 foot 3, 317-pounder and two-time All-American for the Huskies, was featured as the No. 21 player on Brock and Salk’s annual “Most Intriguing Seahawks” ranking on Friday.

“By all accounts, he stands out because he’s a mauler, because he’s a bruiser, because he’s a big, bad man who plays with a mean streak,” co-host Mike Salk said.

Haynes described himself as such during an interview on Brock and Salk after being drafted. Here’s what he said:

“Somebody who’s going to come off the ball and just dominate the defender in front of them. Somebody who’s going to be able to pass block and put people on the ground, also just shows how athletic they are going on to the second level on the screens or in different places, and it’s destroying defenders, destroying linebackers, destroying DBs, destroying anybody that’s in his way and just always trying to be dominant each play.”

“You gotta love the attitude, you gotta love the talk,” Salk said. “The tape apparently says a lot of the same stuff that he is somebody who will be physical, who will have some nastiness, who will want to run the ball and get out ahead of things and knock people over.”

Filling a weakness

The offensive line has long been a troublesome area for the Seahawks, but they’ve been able to find some promising pieces on the outside in recent years with tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas. However, the interior of the line has remained a problem. After the offseason departures of Damien Lewis and Evan Brown, free agent signing Laken Tomlinson is Seattle’s only interior O-lineman with extensive experience at the NFL level.

“Let’s be honest, the two biggest position-group weaknesses on this team are interior offensive line and linebacker, depending on what you think of the quarterback,” Salk said. “… The offensive line can destroy everything else you want to do offensively. I don’t care how smart (new offensive coordinator Ryan) Grubb is, if you don’t have the time to do it, it doesn’t matter. It will ruin everything. If the holes aren’t there, if the protection doesn’t hold up, everything else is meaningless.”

Tomlinson is a favorite to take the starting role at left guard, which leaves Haynes competing with the likes of second-years Anthony Bradford and McClendon Curtis and fellow rookie Sataoa Laumea for playing time at right guard.

“Anthony Bradford had his moments last year, but a lot of those moments were overshadowed by some really bad ones,” Salk said. “They could really use a hit, and maybe Christian Haynes is going to be that guy.”

An interesting development

Being drafted in the third round means the Seahawks invested more in Haynes than the others he’s competing with at right guard. However, Curtis, who went undrafted in 2023, was unexpectedly getting the reps with the first unit during OTAs.

When asked about why Curtis was getting that work over Haynes, Macdonald mentioned Curtis “knows multiple spots.”

“I haven’t learned yet to decode Mike Macdonald-ese, but it sounded like, ‘Well, this one guy knows the plays,’” Salk said.

Macdonald also mentioned Haynes had “done some good things” and that he thought Haynes’ “game is when pads are on, when he’s moving people and getting to the next level.”

“So I’m not going to freak out about the fact that McClendon Curtis has been getting those reps, even if it is taking Christian Haynes a little bit longer to learn,” Salk said. “And I don’t know if that’s the case, but I’m just trying to read between the lines. His game should start to show up once the pads come on.”

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.