‘New Challenge’: Seahawks OL Christian Haynes Banking on Versatility For Sophomore Breakout
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Seattle Seahawks guard/center Christian Haynes walks back to the huddle prior to an offensive line drill at training camp. Credit: Corbin Smith/Emerald City Spectrum [/caption]
RENTON, Wash. - Coming on board as a third round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft after earning All-American honors at UConn and starring at the Senior Bowl, whether fair or not, Christian Haynes joined the Seattle Seahawks with expectations to immediately vie for a starting job at one of the guard spots as an instant impact addition for a unit desperate for young talent.
But acclimating to the league proved to be tougher task than anticipated for Haynes, who fell short of winning the right guard job in a competition against Anthony Bradford that starting in OTAs and leaked into the start of the regular season. From there, he faced an uphill climb that seemed to get steeper as the year progressed. Even after Bradford went down with an injury in Week 12, the Seahawks opted to start fellow rookie Sataoa Laumea, who had been a healthy scratch for every game up to that point, for the final six games instead.
Once his disappointing rookie season came to an end in early January, after not playing at all on offense in the final three games, Haynes finished with a grand total of 167 offensive snaps on his resume, seeing most of that action in reserve duty in a Week 4 loss to the Lions and a Week 12 win against the Cardinals without a single start.
Rather than dwell on what could have been last year, however, Haynes has returned to town for his second training camp with a renewed resolve, eager to turn the page with new opportunities presented playing for a new offensive coaching staff and adding a new position to his repertoire.
“I'll say last year was definitely, I'll describe it as a challenge, a new challenge,” Haynes said when asked about his rookie campaign. “I'll say like a mountain. Just trying to keep climbing up, taking on different challenges, and just trying to have us the most successful year I possibly can and just taking advantage of the opportunity I had.”
Not bogged down by a hectic pre-draft process that included playing in the Senior Bowl and participating in the NFL combine before arriving in Seattle in early May, Haynes attacked his first full NFL offseason with two top priorities: improving his body and enhancing his football IQ. He spent extensive time watching film, reviewing his own performance from limited action in regular season games while starting to dive head first into a new offense following the hire of coordinator Klint Kubiak and line coach John Benton.
Most notably, once the Seahawks returned for offseason workouts in April, Haynes began to work on a new craft learning center, a position he had only previously dabbled in on the practice field at UConn as well as last year following the retirement of Connor Williams and briefly in Mobile at the Senior Bowl. Early on, he spent most of his time snapping and trying to grasp the aspect of making line calls, which he indicated has been the toughest part of making the switch from guard when facing those responsibilities.
As the offseason program progressed through OTAs and into mandatory minicamp, along with receiving significant playing time at right guard with the first-team, Haynes started to gradually see a bit of action at center behind incumbent starter Olu Oluwatimi and second-year pivot man Jalen Sundell. During the first week of training camp, his exposure to the position has continued to increase with Benton rotating him into the lineup with the second-team offense as Sundell has spent more time at right guard.
Wanting to demonstrate his flexibility, Haynes has relished the chance to take on more of a leadership role in his sophomore campaign, focusing on becoming more vocal and using this invaluable experience to enhance his game at multiple positions.
“I'm excited,” Haynes said. It's just really hard. I played a little bit of practice last year when Connor retired but I'm just excited, so hopefully I can get some some snaps in preseason and see what I can do.”
Through the first six practices, Haynes has made marked improvements in a number of areas to his new position, taking to Benton’s “tough love” coaching style in an offense that bears many similarities to the one he played in at the college level. In the first few days, he unloaded several ankle biters, snapping the ball too low to quarterbacks out of shotgun. But by the start of padded practices, those snaps had become much more crisp, often hitting the signal caller’s hands without moving them while having great velocity behind them, leading to the uptick in snaps the past few sessions.
At the same time, not surprisingly, Haynes continues to battle through the growing pains that come with the territory of learning a new position. During Tuesday’s practice, for example, immediately after snapping the ball to Drew Lock, he got caught leaning coming out of his stance while trying to block massive nose tackle Quinton Bohanna, who took advantage by tossing him to his right before gobbling up a ball carrier at the line of scrimmage. Brandon Pili also beat him during a 1-on-1 rep in pass protection, showing he has a ways to go adapting to blocking after snapping the football.
As noted by coach Mike Macdonald earlier in camp, Haynes finds himself behind Oluwatimi and Sundell at center for right now and Seattle’s coaching staff isn’t rushing his development at that position. But he’s in the mix for a starting job at both spots, still getting a ton of playing time with the first team at right guard rotating with Sundell and Bradford.
From Haynes’ perspective, confident in his ability to perform at either spot, it’s just another leg to climb as he tries to find his way to the mountaintop. Adding flexibility to his resume should only help his cause, and if he continues to show rapid improvement at his new position, it wouldn’t be a surprise if things become more interesting at center and right guard for the Seahawks in the next week and change.
“I just love how coaches are giving me different goals and different challenges and going out there and attacking. I like that about Coach Mike, Coach Benton and coach Kubiak. This gave me the opportunity to go out there and show what I can do and I'm just trying to take every advantage I can.”
