What makes rookie Christian Haynes ready-made for Seahawks? His UConn line coach tells us
Of all that Mike Macdonald wants his Seahawks to be — tricky and attacking on defense, physical while explosive on offense — there is one trait above all others the new coach is already demanding of his players.
Toughness.
“The spirit of how we play,” is how Macdonald described it on Feb. 1, the day the Seahawks hired the NFL’s youngest head coach.
Toughness is a reason Christian Haynes, Seattle’s third-round draft choice last weekend, is going to get an immediate chance to start for the Seahawks.
“(I’m) smart,” Haynes said before he and the team’s seven other draft choices plus undrafted free agents began a three-day rookie minicamp Thursday.
“And nasty.”
How smart is Haynes?
UConn recently created an academic award for its football student-athletes. It’s the Christian Haynes Academic Excellence Award, named for the 24-year-old lineman who earned a bachelor’s then a master’s degree while playing for Connecticut.
Who was UConn’s first winner of the Christian Haynes Academic Award?
Christian Haynes.
Christian Haynes is tough
How tough is the Seahawks’ new guard?
“I’ll give you two stories on the kind of guy he is,” Gordie Sammis, Haynes’ line coach at the University of Connecticut for the last two years, told The News Tribune on KJR radio this week. “When we got hired at UConn they had not had much success. The one guy everyone talked about was Christian, what a great player he was.
“When you are the best player, sometimes maybe you don’t want to work as much because you are just better than everybody else. So I tested him early, just to kind of see where he was at. And he refused to come out. I mean, we were really thin on our O-line our first spring (practice) and taking a ton of reps, and he was asking to go in with the twos and the threes at right tackle, just because we needed a body.”
UConn is a Football Bowl Subdivision independent. The Huskies were 1-11, 2-10 and 1-11 in Haynes’ first three seasons at UConn. He played for three different head coaches, the final one former Seahawks coach Jim Mora the last two seasons. Mora hired Sammis to coach Haynes and UConn’s offensive line.
“At UConn we are fortunate enough to play four Power-5 (opponents), which is great for a guy like Christian for the (NFL) scouts to see him play the best,” Sammis said. “And he hurt his ankle pretty bad the second drive against Boston College (last Oct. 28). He just looked at me and said ‘Coach, my ankle’s bad. I ain’t comin’ out. Don’t worry about it.’
“For a guy like like that you may not necessarily want to play in those types of games, because you don’t want to look bad on tape.
“Then, when we played Tennessee the next week, which was a really big game for him as well, he was really getting after them early. At halftime you looked at me and said, ‘Halftime’s too damn long, Coach. The drugs are wearing off.’
“And then he just didn’t say another word and finished the whole game. He played 80-some plays.
“He very well could have (gone out). At halftime I would have taken him out, just because he didn’t want to look bad against very good players. And he could care less how bad he looked, he just wanted to play because he wanted to be out there with his guys.”
That game, on a bad ankle, was part of the 49 consecutive starts the 24-year-old Haynes made for Connecticut. He started 50 of 51 possible games in his college career.
Turns out, that UConn game at Tennessee Nov. 4 is a large reason general manager John Schneider made Haynes Seattle’s second of eight picks in the draft last weekend. Schneider took special note of Haynes’ performance in that game, though he may not have known Haynes was playing on a bad ankle that day in front of 100,000 fans in Knoxville.
Asked what impression he took on Haynes from that Tennessee game, the Seahawks’ GM said: “I mean, just obviously the level of competition, right? You’re going to try to study those games as much as you possibly can when they’re playing up like that.
“I mean, all of them, when you have all these cut-ups now, it’s like, all right, show us all the pressures. Show us all the rear run-play stuff. Outside zone. Inside zone. You can watch so much stuff.”
Oh, yeah, about those pressure numbers.
That’s another reason Haynes is now a Seahawk lineman to strengthen the team’s weakest position on coming out of its 2023, non-playoff season: guard.
“Fifty starts,” Schneider said. “He’s had 48 pressures in 1,687 snaps. The guy is really, really experienced. ...
“He generates a ton of force.”
Christian Haynes ‘mauls people’
Schneider raves about Haynes’ pass protection. Yet the coach that knows him best doesn’t see that as Haynes’ best work.
“His strength is definitely how he finishes (blocks), and how he mauls people in the run game. He’s elite at that,” Sammis said while taking a break from recruiting for UConn this week. “He takes great angles, has great vision to be able to do that.”
Macdonald loves that.
“I like guys that knock (dudes) off the ball,” Seattle’s new coach said after he drafted Haynes.
“If you want to play here, you’re going to have to play a certain way.”
UConn ran a ton out of outside zone run-blocking schemes. Mora, Sammis and Connecticut’s offensive staff also often featured Haynes’ athleticism. They had him pulling on sweeps and in pass protection on quarterback roll outs.
As for what Haynes needs to improve in the NFL, Sammis said: “His hand placement, and his punch (into defenders in pass blocking).
“He and I have talked about that a lot. I think that’s something that can take him to the next level in the NFL.”
He’s already at a starting level for Seattle.
The Seahawks need new guards for now and the future. They lost starting left guard Damien Lewis in free agency to Carolina to a $53 million offer Seattle wasn’t interested in matching. The Seahawks let the contract of Phil Haynes, their often-injured starting right guard, expire after last season.
The team drafted Anthony Bradford in the fourth round last season, and he started last season when Phil Haynes and others were injured. Bradford is a masher but is less nimble and adept in pass protection than Christian Haynes appears and is reputed to be.
Seattle signed 2021 Pro Bowl veteran Laken Tomlinson to a one-year contract to be its left guard, for one year. The Seahawks also signed former Rams backup Treymane Anchrum and former Cleveland Browns center and guard Nick Harris, from the University of Washington, to one-year contracts.
The opportunity for Haynes to play this year and be a multiyear answer at guard for Seattle is beginning in rookie minicamp this weekend.
“This guy is going to come in and compete,” Schneider said. “He’s a solid guy.”
When he does debut for the Seahawks — and it just may be in week one in early September in Seattle’s 2024 season opener — his college line coach has already put a request into Haynes.
“I told him: ‘I don’t ever want anything from you — but for one thing: I want your jersey (new Seahawks number 64) when you play in your first NFL game,’” Sammis said from UConn.
“It doesn’t have to be game-worn. Just so I can hang it in my office and remember.
“I’m just trying to find the next Christian Haynes,” Sammis, “because you guys have a special one.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2024 at 6:24 AM.
