RENTON, Wash. – Coming off his first appearance for the Seahawks, Christian Haynes will get the start at left guard for Seattle this weekend against the Tennessee Titans if rookie Grey Zabel isn’t able to recover from a knee injury in time.

Head coach Mike Macdonald confirmed on Wednesday that Haynes would get the nod to make his first career start after playing only in relief during his rookie campaign last season.

“We’ve seen it on our football team, if somebody can’t go for a certain amount of time, whether it’s practice or games, the standard stays the same.” Macdonald said. “We expect you to go in and go rip it for us and he did that. He didn’t bat an eye, and there’s things he’s going to learn from the game, and we’re going to need him to play at a high level if he needs to play this week.”

Zabel didn’t practice on Wednesday due to the left knee injury he sustained late in Seattle’s 21-19 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. While the Seahawks received good news about Zabel’s status, they still might be without him this weekend.

“It was definitely a surreal moment, but just being ready and locked in,” Haynes said of playing on Seattle’s final drive. “That’s what they need me for, to be ready, to be locked in at all times so I was ready to go out there and then go get a game-winning drive going.” 

Haynes missed the first nine games of the season due to a pectoral injury sustained during the team’s joint practice with the Green Bay Packers in mid-August ahead of their preseason matchup.

“I already hurt it once before that and then the joint practice, it got worse,” Haynes said.

Haynes was a right guard in college at the University of Connecticut before becoming a third-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft by Seattle. Haynes has been working at both guard spots, as well as center, during his time with the Seahawks.

“I’ve been playing a lot of left guard, practicing both, and then I played preseason games at left guard. So it wasn’t nothing new to me when I was out there,” Haynes said.

Haynes played ten snaps for Seattle on their final drive of the game as they were able to move to the edge of field goal range for a last-second, game-winning field goal attempt from 61 yards away for Jason Myers.

“It felt good being back out there,” Haynes said. “I felt confident, and I just felt like I go out there and play my best ball I could possibly play. I felt pretty good out there. I felt in my groove. One thing like Coach Mike always says, like, just be loose and focused, and I felt loose and focused out there. Just go out there and block it and play my game.”

Haynes couldn’t crack Seattle’s lineup last season, unable to unseat veterans Laken Tomlinson or Anthony Bradford, and even fellow rookie Sataoa Laumea had better showings when called upon. But Haynes was challenging Bradford for the starting job at right guard in the preseason before his injury put him on the shelf for two months.

“:Faster with everything I’m doing, with my calls, with my steps, and just seeing things faster as a player,” Haynes said. “Just seeing things before it comes and just then being confident every time in everything that I’m doing.”

Notes:

– Nose tackle Johnathan Hankins won’t play this season for the Seahawks due to a back injury that has kept him out all year. Hankins was placed on the non-football injury list prior to the start of training camp and isn’t progressing to the point of being able to play.

“I’ll probably leave it private right now, what’s going on with his health, but yeah, he won’t be with us this year,” Macdonald said.

“The back is tricky. If it’s not working, it’s not a fun situation to be in, so we wish him the best.”

– Rookie defensive end Rylie Mills is getting close to being able to start practicing with the team. Mills, a fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame in April, has been recovering from an ACL injury in his right knee sustained last December.

“I think we’re getting within a couple weeks now of him starting to practice,” Macdonald said.

Mills would need multiple weeks of practice to get up to speed as he hasn’t been on a football field since college, but he’s getting close to becoming an option.

– Guard Grey Zabel, wide receiver Tory Horton, linebacker Tyrice Knight, and fullback Robbie Ouzts were the four players that did not participate in practice on Wednesday.

Knight sustained a concussion on Sunday, and Horton is still working back from a shin injury that’s kept him out the last two games.

“Some other guys limited that we’re taking care of with reps, but those are the guys that won’t practice,” Macdonald said.

While Ouzts is dealing with an elbow injury, his absence was for non-injury reasons.

Macdonald said Horton’s chances of playing this week will come down to if his shin injury improves in the coming days.

“We’ll see. Really just a matter of calming down, so it could happen tonight, it could happen, not tonight,” Macdonald said.

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Head coach Mike Macdonald is optimistic that Seattle Seahawks rookie left guard Grey Zabel avoided a season-ending injury during Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.

Stacy Rost: A Seattle Seahawks problem cost them against Rams

Zabel, Seattle’s first-round pick in the 2025 draft, exited Sunday’s loss in the final minutes of the fourth quarter with a knee injury and did not return. The North Dakota State product was injured on a Kenneth Walker III touchdown run with 2:23 left in the game when left tackle Charles Cross was pushed into Zabel’s left knee.

Zabel was tended to on the ground by trainers before they helped him limp off the field. Second-year pro Christian Haynes played left guard in place of Zabel on the Seahawks’ final drive.

Seattle’s head coach addressed Zabel’s status during The Mike Macdonald Show on Seattle Sports with Brock and Salk on Monday.

“I’ll say it’s optimistic right now,” Macdonald said. “So initial news is really positive, but let’s get out of the fog here before I start making any declarations.”

Macdonald said his optimism was based off of initial testing done on Zabel. The rookie offensive lineman was scheduled for imaging on his knee Monday morning.

The Seahawks picked the 23-year-old Zabel at No. 18 overall in April out of North Dakota State. The 6-foot-6, 316-pound lineman had played nearly every snap at left guard this season before the injury.

Zabel ranks 68th out of 79 guards with a 49.3 grade, according to Pro Football Focus. That grade does not include Sunday’s performance. He had allowed zero sacks on 267 pass-blocking snaps entering the matchup with Los Angeles.

The Seahawks are already playing without starting center Jalen Sundell, who was a college teammate of Zabel. Sundell was placed on injured reserve Saturday with a knee injury.

Listen to The Mike Macdonald Show at 9:30 a.m. on the day after every Seahawks game. Hear Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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Despite four interceptions by Sam Darnold, the Seattle Seahawks somehow still had a chance to pull off a last-second victory in Sunday afternoon’s NFC West showdown against the Los Angeles Rams.

Instant reaction | Box Score

However, Jason Myers’ 61-yard field goal on the final play sailed wide right and the Seahawks suffered a 21-19 road loss to their division rival as the Rams took Round 1 between these two Super Bowl contenders.

The loss dropped Seattle to 7-3 and allowed the Rams to move into sole possession of first place atop the NFC West at 8-2.

Here’s a look at what stood out from the game.

Darnold’s interceptions prove costly

In a clash of two evenly matched teams, turnovers had the potential to be a differentiating factor. The Seahawks, despite all their success on offense this season, entered the week tied for the second-most turnovers in the league. The Rams’ defense, meanwhile, was tied for the fifth-most takeaways.

And sure enough, it ended up being the story of the game.

Darnold, who entered with just six interceptions this season, was picked off four times by the Rams’ defense. As a result, the Rams began four of their possessions in Seattle territory, and they converted two of those short fields into touchdowns.

For most of this season, the Seahawks were good enough to overcome their high turnover rate. But they essentially handed the Rams 14 points on Sunday, which they simply couldn’t afford to do against one of the league’s elite teams.

A gutsy defensive performance

It’s a major testament to their defense that the Seahawks still had a chance to win this game in the closing moments.

Seattle completely suffocated Los Angeles’ high-scoring offense for most of the afternoon, holding Sean McVay’s crew to just 249 total yards, which was the Rams’ second-lowest mark of the season. Matthew Stafford completed just 15 of 28 passes for a season-low 130 yards, while averaging a season-low 4.6 yards per pass attempt.

And for the final two-thirds of the game, the Rams simply couldn’t move the ball at all. The Seahawks limited the Rams to just 105 total yards and five first downs over their final eight drives, none of which spanned more than 25 yards.

Again, the Rams scored 14 of their 21 points on a pair of drives that started at the Seattle 3 and the Seattle 25. The fact that the Seahawks lost the turnover battle 4-1 and still nearly won should be at least somewhat encouraging.

Settling for field goals

Darnold’s interceptions were by far the biggest problem for Seattle’s offense. But they weren’t the only problem.

The Seahawks drove inside the Rams’ 15-yard line three times over the first two and a half quarters. But all three times, they settled for field goals.

Seattle’s first red-zone drive stalled at the 12-yard line after a pair of incompletions. Seattle’s second red-zone drive – a 15-play, 89-yard march at the end of the first half – stalled at the 3-yard line after Darnold was forced into a third-down throwaway.

And in the third quarter, the Seahawks drove into the red zone again but settled for another field goal. That came after back-to-back plays where Kenneth Walker III had a TD run called back by a holding penalty and Darnold missed a potential go-ahead TD pass by underthrowing an open Rashid Shaheed down the sideline.

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