Christian Haynes, IOL, UConn (Senior)
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
IOL Christian Haynes (RG on video)
— Rayane M (@RayaneScout) March 23, 2024
His terrifying mobility despite average strength is the tool that has allowed Christian to reveal himself to the world. But he still has a lot of work to do if he wants to make his mark in the NFL.
Early Day 3 value 🏗 pic.twitter.com/UQ4M4QUue0
TTProfil
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.
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.