Ted’s Talk: Predicting Christian Haynes’ rookie season

The Seattle Seahawks waited all the way between picks No. 16 in the first round and No. 81 in the third round and still got a starting quality guard in Christian Haynes from the University of Connecticut. Haynes is athletic, nasty and experienced…just what you like to hear about an offensive lineman!

Athletic Profile/Comps

Relative Athletic Score (RAS)

Mockdraftable

Haynes, like Seattle’s first-round pick Byron Murphy, takes a hit on his RAS for being a bit undersized – mainly his height. Honestly, that might be an advantage by giving him leverage to root out defensive tackles.

While Haynes’ explosion grade is good, it’s his speed that really sets him apart as he nearly ran a sub-5.0 second 40. There’s no agility testing which is a bit concerning since linemen are rarely asked to sprint 40 yards downfield but rely on lateral quickness on every play.

There’s a cool overlap in the comparisons from both RAS and Mockdraftable in Chris Snee, the former 4x Pro Bowler and 1x All-Pro who played 10 years in the NFL for the New York Giants, helping them win two Super Bowls.

With near-identical size, Haynes was a bit faster and had a better vertical jump. Snee was stronger and did well in agility testing which Haynes did not complete. They’re very comparable athletes overall and it would be a major win if Haynes can lock down a spot in Seattle for a decade like Snee did for the Giants.

Steve Avila is another comp to call out from Mockdraftable as he started all 17 games for the rival Los Angeles Rams as a rookie in 2023.

Gut reaction to the pick

Any time you can get a potential Day 1 starter at a position of need, I’m happy. Haynes was a player that many had rated much higher and the fact that he was still on the board when Seattle chose at No. 81 was fortunate. In terms of pure guard prospects and not tackle-to-guard converts, Haynes was in contention for the best prospect with guys like Cooper Beebe who went at No. 73 to the Dallas Cowboys.

Haynes’ athleticism allows him to be an effective puller in the run game and he’s got a nasty side to him as well – which is always welcome in the OL room.

Oh, and he can pass block, too.

Seattle waited it out, not borrowing from next year’s draft capital to move up in the third round and that gamble paid off with Haynes still on the board. He plays a major position of need for the Seahawks and seems to have the mentality that Macdonald is hoping to instill in his iteration of the Seattle Seahawks. That pick gets a double thumbs-up from me.

Rookie season prediction

Seattle’s starting guards last season were essentially some combination of Damien Lewis, Phil Haynes (no relation to Christian), and 2023 rookie Anthony Bradford – with starting center Evan Brown also receiving some guard snaps to cover injuries. Of those four players, only Bradford remains. The Seahawks brought in competition at the guard spots in the form of *checks notes* Tremayne Anchrum and Laken Tomlinson.

Haynes played exclusively at right guard in college and was extremely durable, starting 49 consecutive games for the Huskies. With Anthony Bradford’s inconsistency last season, there should be an open competition at right guard in 2024. I expect Haynes to get every chance to wrestle away the starting job and will indeed win the position out of training camp. Barring injury, he’ll bring his consecutive start streak from college to the NFL and form a nasty duo on the right side of the offensive line with a (hopefully healthy) Abraham Lucas.

A wildcard would be that Haynes cross trains as a center since he took snaps there at the Senior Bowl.

Either way, I expect Haynes to solidify himself as a core part of the Seahawks offensive line by the end of the 2024 regular season. And if you need a little more convincing, former Seahawks Legend, Hall-of-Famer, and current Seahawks consultant Steve Hutchinson thinks Haynes will be “A really good f—cking player”.

If he’s good enough for Hutch, he’s good enough for me!