Seahawks’ hottest competition: Bradford vs. Haynes at guard

RENTON — Officially, they were practices.

For Anthony Bradford and Christian Haynes, they were games. They were challenges. Supreme ones. The biggest of their young NFL careers.

For Bradford, it was the challenge of two-time Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. Then, the next day, of Seahawks coaches taking away his starting job.

For Haynes, it was the challenge of getting told just before scrimmaging he was with the starters for the first time, and thus facing Simmons on no notice.

Their two joint practices against the Titans last week in Nashville could prove to be the pivotal days in their competition to start at right guard this Seahawks season.

The competition appears to be a dead heat. They both started in the preseason game against the Titans on Saturday. Both played well, coach Mike Macdonald said.

Both excelled in their interior pass blocking late in the first half for Sam Howell. They gave the quarterback time to deftly direct a 2-minute drill in 38 seconds to a field goal.

Upon the team’s return home, Haynes first then Bradford alternated as the starting right guard in practices Monday and Tuesday.

“We’re in it right now,” Macdonald said of the competition at right guard.

That battle, starting right tackle Abe Lucas’ continued absence since knee surgery last winter and the indoctrination of new starting center Connor Williams are the pressing issues on Seattle’s all-important offensive line before the season begins Sept. 8 against Denver.

For that reason and more, the joint practices in Nashville of starters scrimmaging against starters will likely prove to be more important for Bradford and Haynes than any preseason game.

“For sure. For sure,” Bradford, the 23-year-old, fourth-round pick from 2023 said this week upon the team’s return from its week in Tennessee. “The competition was there. All day. The whole practice. Chirping, from both sides. What you want. For real, for real.

“I feel like it brings us together more, closer as a team. I feel like being able to do that, in the middle of camp, it was good for me.”

His Wednesday in Nashville was not.

Bradford, Haynes vs. Titans’ Jeffery Simmons

In the first practice against Tennessee, full pads and full-go in scrimmaging, Titans two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons dominated Bradford, who started 10 games as rookie last season, and the interior of Seattle’s offensive line. Simmons would have had at least three sacks of Smith had defenders been allowed to hit the quarterback. Simmons bulled through Bradford, Seahawks center Olu Oluwatimi and left guard Laken Tomlinson all that Wednesday morning.

Simmons kept bellowing that officials and coaches should have stopped Smith from throwing because he would have been sacked. He talked nonstop, reminding Seahawks he was in their backfield.

What did Bradford learn from scrimmaging against Simmons, who did not play and was on injured reserve when Bradford started and played 48 snaps in Seattle’s win at Tennessee last Christmas Eve?

“Really, you know, you’ve gotta have your helmet strapped on tight,” Bradford said.

“Just what I took from it was, me, myself, I just need to be way more level. I need to have a posture. I need to have a plan before the ball’s even snapped. You can’t go against him not having a plan, or it’s just not gonna work.

“So, really just having a plan before the ball is snapped, and making sure all my technique is right on point.”

Bradford also said of Simmons: “I definitely could have watched some more tape of him.”

After that first joint practice, Macdonald, new offensive coordinator Ryan Grub and new line coach Scott Huff decided to replace Bradford with Haynes as the starting right guard Thursday in the second practice against Tennessee.

“They just told me before practice. Like, Hey, you’re gonna go out with the ones today and be prepared,’” Haynes said. “So I went out there and was prepared. And went out there and did my thing.”

Bradford was on the second team that day behind the rookie, for the first time all spring offseason and summer training-camp practices.

“Like I always said, from the beginning, it’s a competition,” Macdonald said. “I wanted to see what Christian could do with the ones.”

Haynes and Bradford both excelled in that second joint practice.

The 6-foot-3, 317-pound Haynes pushed Quinton Bohanna, Tennessee’s 6-4, 360-pound defensive tackle, to the ground in a one-on-one pass-rush drill. Then Haynes pushed Bohanna again, while he was down. Bohanna didn’t like that. The fourth-year veteran got to his feet and charged at Haynes. They went nose to nose, yelling and pointing at each other. In his next rep, Haynes threw down Titans defensive tackle Marlon Davidson, a fourth-year pro.

In scrimmaging, ones versus ones, Haynes often held his own repelling Simmons.

“It was good going against an All-Pro(-type) guy, and then just throwing different things at him,” Haynes said. “You know, giving him my, my business.

“He is a guy that likes to talk a lot. So even I was talking back at him. Just having the confidence going in there and blocking him.”

Asked what he felt he showed Seattle’s coaches that second joint practice starting opposite Simmons against the Titans, Haynes said: “That I can do whatever they need me to do. I can go out there and do it, play my best football possible. Somebody that’s going to go out there and be for the team, go out there and get give it their all.”

What has Haynes been telling his former college teammates at the University of Connecticut who aspire to play in the NFL about life in the league?

“Just, it’s a grind,” he said.

“It’s, like you have to be confident in your game, but also you’ve got a lot of communication aspects. You have to know what you’re doing, what everybody else is doing, as well, so everybody can move as one.”

Anthony Bradford’s response

Pushed down to the second offense, the 6-4, 335-pound Bradford plowed Titans defensive tackles throughout pass-rush reps, in one-on-one drills and in the scrimmages.

Coaches thought Bradford’s practice Thursday in Nashville on the second offense was one of his best this month.

“A.B. has been a pro about it. I just commend his attitude,” Macdonald said. “He stacked a couple of good practices and some good reps throughout the game.

“But, we’re still in it right now. The competition’s yet to be settled.”

When told Monday coaches said that was his best practice of training camp, Bradford smiled.

“We’ve got some good rookies and some good competitors,” he said. “Christian Haynes, he’s a great player. So they are trying to get him in to see him now, rockin’ the road with the ones, you’ve gotta respect that. He’s gotta get his.

“It’s, really, how I respond.”

Haynes says he’s not upset the job that was his all spring and summer until Thursday is now an even competition.

He’s not happy, either.

“I wouldn’t say mad,” Bradford said, “but for sure I wanted to get by get back from the first day.

“For sure.”