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Christian Haynes, IOL, UConn (Senior)

Picture of Rayane M

Rayane M

Back for the 2024 NFL Draft edition, The Trick Play team is once again offering to immerse you in the heart of the event through the scouting reports of Rayane and Valentin. Who will become the next gem of the pro world and who, on the contrary, risks a spectacular flop?
The 2024 NFL Draft starts right now on TTP!

 

Strengths :

  • Great mobility
  • Good agility
  • Active in pass protection, mobile, moves well with good hand placement
  • Effective at locking down blocks in run blocking
  • nasty side
  • Plays too high
  • Sometimes gets overpowered
  • Has a tendency to lead with the helmet
  • Sometimes lacks mobility over long distances
  • Struggles to create movement on the Line of Scrimmage (LoS)
  • Lacks power
  • Ground anchoring

TTProfil

 
Christian Haynes is a unique case because he simultaneously displays significant flashes of talent, which are the main reason for the hype surrounding him, and also exhibits substantial limitations that don't seem to get as much discussion. But let's start with Haynes' interesting points, and he does have a few.
 
Christian Haynes' significant mobility, which can be broken down into two main components, is a noteworthy point. While I have some reservations about this mobility that I'll address later, it's still one of Christian's major strengths, particularly how effortlessly he moves close to the Line of Scrimmage. First, his good explosiveness and reactivity allow him to move quickly, thus finding himself in a preferable position faster than the Defensive Tackles (DTs) he faces. The other component is his good agility. Indeed, he moves quite well in tight spaces thanks to his smaller size, which, paradoxically, is also considered one of his weaknesses. Thanks to this agility, he's capable of repositioning himself swiftly during a rep when necessary.
 
Christian is a player who is quite active in pass protection situations. As we've seen above, he's endowed with impressive mobility and doesn't hesitate to use it to move effectively, thereby staying with his opponent as much as possible. Additionally, he exhibits good hand placement.
When I say his hand placement is good, without overstating the matter, it's simply because Christian doesn't particularly excel in hand placement either. It's competent but not extraordinary.
 
In run blocking, one aspect I've really appreciated about Haynes, besides his mobility—which, as you've understood, seems to be Christian's strong point—is his frequent attempts to lock down his block and stick to his defensive lineman (DL) to avoid holdings. He does this quite often, and it's something I particularly value because generally, once an offensive lineman (OL) has successfully locked his block, the defender doesn't break free. Unfortunately, this approach can make him appear to be a very "grabby" player, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him draw a few flags upon entering the NFL.
 
Finally, for those like me who appreciate seeing a bit of nastiness in their trench warriors, Christian Haynes should appeal to you as he can sometimes be a real pain. With a big mouth and a dominating presence when he manages to beat his opponent, he's capable of occasionally getting under the skin of a player from the opposing team, which can be valuable in certain situations. However, care should be taken not to cross the line, as Haynes sometimes skirts very close to it.
Moving on to weaknesses, Christian plays too upright for his size, like really too upright. At 6'2", Christian is short, especially for an offensive lineman. While I haven't chosen to list his height as a definitive weakness, you'll see that, unfortunately, it remains the main issue in most of the points we're going to cover here. So, Christian doesn't play low enough, especially for his height. When in his situation, one should try to take advantage of being unfortunately quite short for the position to trouble opposing defensive linemen as much as possible by staying low and leveraging an optimal power angle, something Christian doesn't necessarily do.
 
Another point that his frame seems to affect, in all play situations, whether pass or run, is his power. Haynes sometimes really seems to lack strength against the more powerful defensive tackles (DTs) he has faced. It's not uncommon to see him struggle in some reps where DTs choose to go straight at him with a powerful bull rush, and I don't understand how some observers could have been satisfied with his one-on-one matchups during the Senior Bowl. I'm a bit worried about seeing such reps against college-level competition, considering the monsters present in the NFL at the position.
Additionally, I have to mention a point that really displeased me with Christian: his excessive tendency to lead with his helmet unnecessarily to help him block and compensate for his lack of power, unless it's solely to hurt his opponent, which would be even more pointless. This is clearly an aspect that I, personally, would not highlight.
 

As I teased in the strengths section, despite showing very interesting flashes of mobility, including his explosiveness and reactive ability as well as his good agility, Christian can sometimes appear quite slow and be simply incapable of reaching the player he is supposed to block at the second level or someone far outside. This is not always the case, but it happens frequently enough to be observable once or multiple times per game. I attribute this to the fact that Christian is indeed quick, but unfortunately, due to his small stature, he doesn't cover much ground with each step. So, be wary of being overly impressed by his 40-yard dash time at the Combine. It can't be emphasized enough that the speed you see at the Combine is not the same as football speed on the field.

Continuing on mobility, there's another point that bothers me, where I feel his explosiveness and speed are not sufficiently impactful: his ability to create movement on the Line of Scrimmage (LoS). Whether at the initial impact or even once the block is engaged, Christian sometimes struggles to move defenders and thus to create quality rushing lanes for his carriers. Despite doing good work, it doesn't translate well, and he fails to create displacement, which I consider crucial for an interior offensive lineman (IOL).

Finally, I noted that when he doesn't activate his legs, Christian can sometimes get significantly moved around. Naturally, when one doesn't possess great strength and additionally handicaps oneself by not using one's main strength, which is mobility, things quickly become complicated. I think you'll also have gathered from reading about his weaknesses that Christian is clearly not a master of ground anchoring. While he does what he can to give his quarterback as much time as possible by repositioning his foot base as needed, he isn't one of those heavy and overpowering players who, once their foot base is planted, don't move.

 

I prefer to be upfront: I'm not buying into the hype that has built up around Christian Haynes. While I noticed some very promising aspects early in the season, a deeper analysis of his tapes revealed less appealing traits, and I was really looking forward to seeing him at the Senior Bowl against better competition to see if my opinion would change. It turns out that while I did indeed see some of the same qualities I had noticed on his tapes, particularly regarding mobility and a nicely nasty mindset, he did not impress me in other areas where I had higher expectations.

Contrary to what has been said following his performances at the Senior Bowl, I personally did not find him to be dominant. Worse, during the 1-on-1 phases, I even felt that he was significantly challenged. After two and a half years of work, this is now a surprise to few, but I have different expectations for future professional players than most people, and Christian's showing at the Senior Bowl proved this to me once again.
Where some see winning and controlled reps from Haynes, I saw a player who was often pushed back, forcing his (hypothetical) quarterback to move because the pocket was collapsing quickly and from the inside. This is a point that, once again, personally, I cannot accept in an IOL from a certain range of value. If you have doubts, simply compare the 1-on-1 reps of Haynes with those of someone like Jackson Powers-Johnson. Could it be said that the value of the two players is too different, one being seen as a late first-round pick while the other as a second-round selection? Then look at the performances of Dominick Puni, who is in a value range closer to Haynes.

In short, his Senior Bowl, which for some appears very successful, for me, was a confirmation of what I've seen of him on the tapes, and that's precisely why I personally wouldn't spend a pick on him before the 4th or 5th round. It depends on where you place the most value for an OL, but for me, he's in the same value range as someone like Christian Mahogany. Mahogany has power on his side, whereas Haynes offers much more mobility, and I found Mahogany to be far more impressive on the eye test. I wasn't surprised to learn that, given his qualities and flaws, teams decided to test Christian Haynes at Center during his Pro Day. It's a move that makes a lot of sense, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go higher than the value I assign him if a team was satisfied with what they saw and decides to draft him to play Center.

From my perspective, with the weaknesses he possesses, largely due to his lack of power and dominance, Christian Haynes drops to the 5th round in terms of value.

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