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The Roster Got Too Good for Christian Haynes
Christian Haynes might not make this team. Sports Illustrated laid it out plainly this week: the 2024 third-round pick, drafted to be Seattle’s right guard of the future, may not survive final cuts to open the 2026 season. Two years ago that sentence would have sounded absurd. Now it just sounds like arithmetic.
Here’s what happened. Haynes was supposed to walk into the starting right guard job as a rookie and never did, losing the competition to Anthony Bradford and then getting shuffled between three positions trying to find a home. The problem isn’t that he collapsed. The problem is that everyone around him got better and younger and cheaper. Per SI, second-year linemen Bryce Cabeldue and Mason Richman are now the ones being groomed for backup interior spots, which leaves Haynes as the odd man out on a line that’s returning all five starters intact.
The money makes the math even colder. SI notes that cutting Haynes would save Seattle roughly $1.3 million against the cap while eating only a small dead-money hit spread over two years. That’s the kind of number a front office circles when it’s already stacked at the position.
$1.3M
The cap savings Seattle would clear by cutting Haynes, per SI, against only a small spread-out dead-money hit.
I don’t take any joy in this one. Haynes did everything you’d want a rotational lineman to do, and in most seasons he’d be a comfortable backup somewhere. But this isn’t most seasons and this isn’t most rosters. When a third-round pick can’t crack the 53, it usually means the pick busted. Here it means the opposite of a bust everywhere else on the depth chart.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Jeremy Fowler says Zach Charbonnet is “progressing well” from ACL surgery with a late-July check-up landing right as camp opens July 25. Asked if Charbonnet could be ready for Week 1, Macdonald smiled and said “Everything’s possible.” Which is coachspeak for “absolutely not, but I love you for asking.” Seattle Sports
The Khosla family need at least 24 of 32 owners to approve the sale, which Field Gulls calls a formality — and points out the Seahawks should have their new ownership in place by the Week 1 opener against the Patriots. New landlord, same banner going up. Field Gulls
Seattle will host nine public practices starting July 25, with Football Fest at Lumen Field on August 8. HBO’s cameras will be rolling for all of it. If you’ve ever wanted to watch a right guard competition in 4K with a prestige-drama soundtrack, your moment has arrived. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson won’t face a felony charge, per ESPN’s Sarah Barshop, resolving the legal cloud through a pretrial diversion program. Good news for him. Less good for the Rams, whose beat writers immediately noted the team still has no clarity at left tackle, the one job that keeps 38-year-old MVP Matthew Stafford upright. You imported Myles Garrett, chased Aaron Donald out of retirement, and stacked the defense to the ceiling — and the thing that decides your season is still whether one guy can protect Stafford’s blind side. Priorities.
CARDINALS
Rookie Jeremiyah Love — the third overall pick Arizona spent premium capital on — is publicly making peace with splitting carries in his rookie year, telling the local beat he’s focused on the bigger goal. Healthy attitude. Also a quiet admission that a 3-14 team drafting a running back that high still can’t hand him the whole backfield. Meanwhile Jadarian Price, the back Seattle took 29 picks later, gets to learn behind a Super Bowl roster. Love and Price meet twice this year. Bring a notebook.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Seattle used its 1984 first-round pick on this Southern Illinois cornerback, who started 52 games through 1988 and whose 16 career interceptions still rank 10th on the franchise’s all-time list. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Terry Taylor. He returned two of those picks for touchdowns and, in a very 1980s twist, appeared in the Seahawks’ infamous ‘Locker Room Rock’ music video in 1985.
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Ten days to camp, and the surest sign of a great roster is a good player who can't find room on it. — The Rooster