The Seattle Seahawks enjoyed a mostly healthy offensive line throughout 2025, with only Charles Cross and Jalen Sundell missing regular season action. For at least the next month of the 2026 season, the reigning Super Bowl champions will be without their starting right guard.
Anthony Bradford was placed on injured reserve ahead of the team’s Week 3 road game against the Washington Commanders. Bradford missed the Week 2 win over the Arizona Cardinals with knee and hip injuries, but Seahawks head coach
Mike Macdonald indicated that Bradford should be back sooner (after the minimum four games missed) than later.
For however long Bradford is out, the right guard duties will go to Christian Haynes and/or rookie Beau Stephens. In the Cardinals game, Haynes took 43 snaps to Stephens’ 27, or roughly a 60-40 split.
The bigger picture at right guard is what happens next season. Bradford is set to become an unrestricted free agent, and while he’s coming off his best (and healthiest) season, the odds of an extension don’t seem particularly high. Extending Jalen Sundell (who’s a restricted free agent this offseason) is arguably a higher priority than keeping Bradford.
So who’s going to be the likely Bradford replacement in 2027? That could’ve been Haynes as far back as 2024, when he was a third-round pick from UConn. He had an opportunity to earn a starting spot over Bradford when Anthony was in his second season, but Haynes only mustered up sporadic snap-splitting before the Seahawks pulled the plug on that idea. When Bradford went down with a season-ending ankle injury against the Arizona Cardinals, Haynes played the remainder of the game, but the coaching staff preferred Sataoa Laumea to Haynes. Laumea is currently not on an NFL roster.
Okay, throw out the Ryan Grubb/Scott Huff year because they were just boiling poo in a kettle. Under John Benton, surely Haynes would be poised for greater things in a more familiar blocking scheme? Well, he was tested out at center during training camp, and there wasn’t the slightest hint of Bradford’s spot being threatened. In his limited regular season playing time, he did replace an injured Grey Zabel against the Los Angeles Rams, then an injured/resting Anthony Bradford versus the Minnesota Vikings, but 10 of his 32 snaps came at center.
Enter Beau Stephens, Seattle’s prized Day 3 pick after giving up 2027 draft capital to trade back into the fifth round. That level of investment suggested that Haynes was on the roster bubble or even a trade piece during camp and preseason. Haynes responded with an impressive July and August, comfortably cementing himself as the main backup guard on both sides. Stephens was mostly with the third-team before Mason Richman’s injury bumped him up the depth chart.
And yet, he hasn’t yet cemented himself as someone who gets 100% of the snaps when called upon. Both Haynes and Stephens had encouraging reps on film last Sunday.
For what it’s worth, neither Haynes nor Stephens had a sparkling PFF grade, but I’ve reached the point where I think PFF post-sale should be met with even greater skepticism than before it was sold.
If nothing else, Bradford’s best asset is his run blocking, and it’ll be important for the Seahawks offense to have Haynes and/or Stephens adequately fill that role. They will be facing more talented defensive lines than Arizona’s during Bradford’s absence, including potentially Week 7 when Chris Jones and Peter Woods are in the Kansas City Chiefs lineup, so we’ll get a clearer picture of the differences between Bradford and his backups very soon.
In the immediate, Haynes and Stephens will be tasked with making sure there isn’t a massive drop-0ff in performance when they’re in the lineup. Longer term, while nothing will be decided for next season based on these upcoming weeks, consider this the start of the 2027 starting right guard competition.
