Anthony Bradford Earned Seahawks RG Job With 'Better Execution'

Outperforming his rookie competition through eight weeks, the Seahawks want to see what Anthony Bradford can do with a full snap share moving forward.

Oct 27, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks guard Anthony Bradford looks on during a play against the Buffalo Bills. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

RENTON, Wash. - Through the first eight weeks of the season, to the chagrin of some fans, the Seattle Seahawks have held an ongoing competition at right guard, rotating rookie Christian Haynes into the lineup in platoon role behind Anthony Bradford.

But as the Seahawks ramp up preparation for hosting the Rams on Sunday, according to coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, that competition finally has a winner. With continuity along the offensive line being a top priority, the team will move forward with Bradford as the undisputed starter, no longer instituting a rotation at the position.

"I think, especially last game, he's proven that he's our starting right guard," Grubb told reporters following Thursday's practice. "It'd be good to go into the game and let [center] Connor [Williams] feel good about the guys that are going to be next to him and have a consistent lineup."

Announcing Bradford as the full-time starter may not seem like earth-shattering news, as the second-year blocker out of LSU has started all eight of Seattle's games and played 80 percent of the team's offensive snaps. But yielding a 20 percent snap share rarely happens in the NFL when it comes to the offensive line, as teams don't often rotate players in the trenches, and that's still a substantial amount of snaps he hasn't received this year from a development standpoint.

With those opportunities, Bradford has endured a challenging sophomore season, particularly in pass protection. Per Pro Football Focus charting, he has allowed 20 quarterback pressures and four sacks, the fifth and third-most among guards in those two categories respectively. His 95.6 percent pass block efficiency rate ranks 52nd out of 55 qualified blockers at his position, and when removing screens, play action, and plays with less than four rushers from the equation, he's been even worse in "true pass sets" with a 91.7 percent efficiency rate.

But as Grubb noted on Thursday, the Seahawks have felt that Bradford has been the more consistent player compared to Haynes and made major progress in recent weeks, citing his performance on the practice field as a major factor in the decision to end the platoon.

After allowing 18 pressures in the first six games, Bradford has only yielded two total in the past two contests without giving up any sacks, ranking 12th out of 47 guards in pass block efficiency rate (98 percent) in that span. Playing with better discipline as the season has progressed, after being flagged a whopping seven times in the first three weeks, he hasn't been penalized in the five games since either.

While PFF grades may not bear it out, Seattle also feels much better about Bradford as a run blocker than Haynes at this stage. Earlier in the season, Grubb indicated Haynes needed to improve his play strength working against NFL defensive tackles, acknowledging that Bradford was well ahead of him from that perspective and hinting that the coaching staff had far more trust in the veteran to get the job done moving the line of scrimmage.

Rather than continue mixing his rookie counterpart into the lineup, after seeing Bradford take another positive step forward in last week's loss to the Bills, the Seahawks want to maximize his chances for growth and help build cohesion up front in the process.

"He's just improving," Grubb explained. "I thought he did a better job finishing. His execution was better, and he had a really good week of practice. I thought that was something that showed up in the game. He certainly wasn't perfect, by any stretch. He's still working through stuff as a young player, but he's finishing harder and he's playing with better pad level and he's starting to live up to some of the things we think he can do."

Long-term, the decision to stick with Bradford as the every down starter right now doesn't mean Haynes won't develop into a starter in time and it's still way too early to characterize him as a third-round bust. Considering Grubb's blunt assessment about his strength from earlier in the season, a full offseason to hit the weight room will be essential to his development, and Seattle could still foresee a future with both him and Bradford in the lineup together as fixtures at each guard spot.

But in the present, after giving him 104 snaps in the first eight games to show what he can do, the Seahawks clearly don't think Haynes is ready for prime time just yet. Understanding the importance of allowing the same five blockers to build camaraderie during games, the choice to roll with Bradford moving forward likely gives the team the best chance to win games for the remainder of the schedule while also providing an extensive evaluation of the player for the future.

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