O-line Shuffle: Seahawks rookie to start, make NFL debut

With right guard Anthony Bradford placed on injured reserve earlier this week, the Seattle Seahawks will be starting their 10th different offensive lineman of the season on Sunday.

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In a bit of a twist, that starter won’t be rookie third-round draft pick Christian Haynes.

Instead, the job will go to another rookie: Sixth-round pick Sataoa Laumea.

Laumea beat out Haynes for the starting job in practice this week and will make his NFL debut in Sunday’s Week 13 road matchup against the New York Jets, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald told reporters on Friday.

“Both these guys deserve a lot of credit,” Macdonald said. “They practiced their tails off this week. The plan is we’re gonna start Satoa at guard. He’s just done a tremendous job. These guys have been competing the whole way. … So we’re excited about these guys and we’ve got all the confidence in the world in them, but Toa will start the game out.”

Laumea, a three-time All-Pac-12 selection at Utah, was inactive for Seattle’s first 11 games while sitting behind Bradford and Haynes on the depth chart.

Bradford and Haynes battled for the starting right guard spot throughout training camp and preseason – and well into the regular season. Bradford started all 11 games, but his inconsistent play left the door open for Haynes, who rotated in for occasional series over the first eight weeks.

The rotation ended in Week 9, as Bradford played every snap at right guard for two straight games before getting injured on the opening series of the Seahawks’ win over the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday. After Bradford exited the game, Haynes filled in and played the rest of the way.

But now, Laumea has passed Haynes on the depth chart.

“He earned it, just play in, play out, and onward we go,” Macdonald said. “It’s something that we have confidence in. And obviously we want continuity at our offensive line, but this isn’t the end of it, and Christian has done a tremendous job as well.

“So I just want to be really clear that this isn’t something that Christian lost or anything like that. This is something that Toa’s earned the opportunity.”

With Bradford on IR, he’s required to miss at least four games. That means the earliest he could return is Week 17, when the Seahawks face the Chicago Bears in a primetime Dec. 26 matchup.

Macdonald didn’t say whether Seattle will rotate in Haynes at right guard on Sunday.

“We’ll see in the game and kind of leave that – see how the game plays out,” Macdonald said. “We have a plan, but we’ll let that kind of play out with how we want to do it.”

The 6-foot-4, 319-pound Laumea started 44 consecutive games at Utah while mixing time between right guard and right tackle. He primarily played right guard his first two seasons before moving predominantly to right tackle in 2022 and 2023.

Haynes started 49 games at right guard for UConn, where he was an Associated Press third-team All-American each of the past two seasons. He has posted a 50.4 Pro Football Focus grade over 164 snaps with Seattle this season.

Bradford, a 2023 fourth-round pick out of LSU, has 21 career starts over his two NFL seasons. He ranks 73rd out of 76 qualified guards with a 50.1 PFF grade this year.

Macdonald said Laumea has continued to improve over the course of the season.

“He just keeps coming on,” Macdonald said. “… To his credit, he just keeps continuing to get better, and he deserves the opportunity.”

Seattle’s offensive line has struggled in both pass protection and run blocking this season amid a revolving door of injuries and different starting lineups.

Due to injuries, the Seahawks have had four different starters at right tackle: Abraham Lucas (two games), George Fant (two games), Stone Forsythe (five games) and rookie sixth-round pick Michael Jerrell (two games). Lucas, the team’s top right tackle, has started the past two games after making his long-awaited return from offseason knee surgery.

Laumea will be Seattle’s third different starting right guard. And at center, Connor Williams started the first nine games before abruptly retiring. Second-year pro Olu Oluwatimi has since taken over and started the past two games at center.

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