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# Seahawks Flash Rare O-Line Depth as Christian Haynes, Beau Stephens Shine in Platoon
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-seahawks-flash-rare-depth-offensive-line-christian-haynes-beau-stephens/
- Published: 2026-09-22T17:35:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T06:10:14.000Z
- Author: Corbin Smith
- Tags: Analysis, Features, Seahawks, Beau Stephens, Christian Haynes

RENTON, Wash. - 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.

“We felt like it was an opportunity,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald told reporters on Monday. “Christian \[Haynes\] earned the start but also to give Beau \[Stephens\] some well-earned reps. There’s some flexibility in terms of how we wanted to approach the rotation. We were happy with the way it came out. Sometimes it’s hard to control. Tell a guy he has a series or whatever, you don’t know how long that’s going to go.”

Much as the saying goes that if “you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one,” such a rotational arrangement along the offensive line tends to typically not work out well. Communication remains vital up front and mixing and matching players in similar fashion to a preseason game can have a negative effect on the cohesion of the entire group, particularly against an Arizona defense that prides itself in multiplicity and deception, including mixing and matching defensive fronts and blitz packages.

In the not-so-distant past, Seattle struggled to field a quality starting offensive line, let alone having the depth in place to be able to successfully alternate backup blockers at a position. Only a couple short years ago, trying to implement a platoon with reserve guards would have most certainly been an unmitigated disaster.

But as yet another testament to offensive line coach John Benton’s magic touch, Seattle didn’t miss a beat platooning Haynes and Stephens over the course of four quarters on Sunday. The two blockers combined to allow a single pressure, as the rookie Stephens got beat once in the second quarter in an otherwise unblemished pass protection outing, and each player seemed to get stronger as the game wore on in the run blocking department.

> I had the combo of Haynes/Stephens down for only one pressure allowed on Sunday - the rookie gives up one here in the second quarter, but Drew Lock escapes on what should have been a completion to Shaheed.  
>  
> Otherwise, a clean day for [#Seahawks](https://x.com/hashtag/Seahawks?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) right guards. [pic.twitter.com/O71XkE08uy](https://t.co/O71XkE08uy?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com)— Corbin K. Smith (@CorbinSmithNFL) [September 22, 2026](https://x.com/CorbinSmithNFL/status/2102446835499762031?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com)

Making the most of his first start, Haynes didn’t surrender a single pressure with a stellar pass pro performance and executed plenty of strong blocks in the run game, including sealing defensive tackle Walter Nolen back inside on a 25-yard run by Jadarian Price early in the third quarter. Playing at his best during the final stanza against a fatigued Cardinals defense, he dished out a pair of pancakes during a 16-play, 70-yard drive that culminated with tight end AJ Barner powering his way past the goal line behind the interior offensive line on a “Barn Yard” sneak, bringing the finishing touch as the Seahawks put the nail in their rival’s coffin.

Receiving invaluable regular season reps that simply cannot be replicated in practice and will serve him well down the road, Stephens - a fifth round pick out of Iowa - brought his own junkyard dog mentality to the lineup seeing the field for a handful of series. Regularly finishing with authority, he produced two pancakes of his own as a run blocker, flattening defensive tackle Roy Lopez off of a double team to spring Emanuel Wilson for a 10-yard run in the second quarter and later turning ex-Seahawks first round pick L.J. Collier into part of the turf on a failed fourth and goal rush attempt. With the aforementioned pressure as the lone exception, his pass pro film turned out pretty clean as well, an encouraging development for the latest draft class.

“I thought there was some good stuff for both guys. Different things, respectively, on what we want them to work on, which is great,” Macdonald commented. “To get an opportunity to go in and play good football when AB wasn’t able to go was great for our team depth, our offensive line depth. It was great for Beau being a rookie and getting experience. We’ll monitor the situation with AB moving forward and take it from there.”

As Macdonald indicated, the Seahawks will be keeping tabs on Bradford’s health going into a Week 3 road tilt with the Commanders, hoping the fourth-year starter will be able to return to practice and have a shot to play next weekend in Landover. If he’s healthy enough to go, his job isn’t in jeopardy by any means and once he’s ready to return, he will be back in the lineup.

But as is the case with Darnold, who is expected to practice this week in some capacity after missing Sunday’s victory with a glute injury, Seattle has been afforded the luxury to be patient with Bradford and not force the issue bringing him back before he’s fully recovered due to the impressive depth built at the guard spots over the past couple of seasons. Marked improvement from Haynes in his third season as well as the obvious upside of Stephens give Macdonald and Benton plenty of options to confidently roll with in the short-term, something most teams in the league only wish they had in the trenches.

Making the situation even better for the Seahawks, Haynes and Stephens both have clear pathways to getting better with experience as well. On Sunday, Haynes still had a few slipups communication wise against stunts and blitzes by the Cardinals, including one time getting launched onto his backside by linebacker Mack Wilson. As for Stephens, his biggest area of concern stemmed from working off combo blocks to get to linebackers and safeties at the second level, as he either was late getting to defenders or didn’t take the best angles to reach them, causing him to miss completely or slide off block attempts multiple times.

Considering Benton’s track record in 20-plus seasons as an NFL line coach and the wizardry he has put on display transforming one of the worst units in the league into one of the best seemingly overnight, the ‘Hawks are in great hands when it comes to maximizing on the development of Haynes, Stephens, and other young backups on the roster when their numbers are called. As a result, with a core that still has ample room to grow, Seattle has as much depth up front as it has in 51 seasons as a franchise, which bodes well for staying in the hunt as a top Super Bowl contender.