Christian Haynes Drafted by Seattle in 3rd Round
Christian Haynes was selected in the 3rd round, 81st overall to the Seattle Seahawks. He was the first Husky drafted since Travis Jones was selected 76th by the Ravens in 2022.
Haynes, a two star recruit coming out of HS, played six years in Storrs, making 49 consecutive starts at guard. He started every game he played starting his redshirt freshman season in 2019. He is the first Husky to be named All-American in two separate seasons, and back-to-back seasons (2022 and 2023). He is someone that assumedly could have left for the NFL after 2022, or enter the portal, but OC Gordon Sammis describes Haynes as “a UConn guy through and through.” He anchored a UConn OL that allowed just one sack per game in 2023, good for 9th in the country.
He scored well at the Combine, with 25 reps on bench, a 5.03” 40, a 33” vertical, and 8’ 6” broad jump. He earned a grade of 6.27 out of 8 on NFL.com, a grade translating to an eventual starter in the NFL. That is certainly the expectation, and Haynes has the added benefit of perhaps playing at center. Coach Mora has mentioned it in the past, and Sammis confirmed that he had enough snaps in practice to send film along to prospective teams.
Scouts like his aggressiveness, he is compact and powerful through the upper body, has good footwork to catch counters and twists in the gaps, in addition to his durability and leadership he exhibited in Storrs. He doesn’t quite have the ideal size for the position in the NFL, and there is concern about his lack of length. However, Haynes is incredibly hard-working and coachable. He had zero pre-draft visits with teams, presumably because there were no character issues, and he had glowing recommendations from the staff.