Seahawks Flash Rare O-Line Depth as Christian Haynes, Beau Stephens Shine in Platoon
Flying to Arizona for their first road test of the season last weekend, the Seattle Seahawks had a backup quarterback in Drew Lock scheduled to make his first start in two years in place of Sam Darnold, which obviously drew the biggest headlines at the most important position in pro sports.
Hovering under the radar, however, Seattle had another significant injury pop up late in the week, as starting right guard Anthony Bradford went from a limited participant on Wednesday and Thursday to a non-participant in practice on Friday and the team then ruled him out on Saturday with knee/hip issues. Already playing with a backup signal caller, losing a starting offensive lineman can have negative ripple effects on the entire group up front both in pass protection and the run game, especially when it happens so late in the preparation process.
With Bradford missing his first game since 2024, all eyes shifted to third-year guard Christian Haynes, who earned his first career start playing in Bradford’s absence against a Cardinals’ defensive front that had wrought havoc in Week 1 against the Chargers. This provided a prime opportunity for the 2024 third round pick, who had been beaten out in competitions by Bradford in each of his first two training camps and struggled to live up to his draft billing as a former All-American at UConn, to impress against a quality divisional opponent and demonstrate marked growth as a player.
But unexpectedly, the Seahawks decided to institute a platoon rather than having Haynes play all the snaps at State Farm Stadium, opting to throw rookie Beau Stephens into the fire as well, with the former logging 43 snaps and the latter seeing his first 27 regular season snaps. Both players wound up making positive contributions in a 31-7 victory, helping the visitors rack up 164 rushing yards and allow just one hit on Lock in a thorough 60-minute thumping in the desert that flexed rare offensive line depth for the franchise.
