Player
AJ Barner
TE · Seahawks
Year 2 leaps separate role players from real offensive pieces. A 4th-round TE going from 38 to 68 targets and 245 to 519 yards while keeping a 6-TD red-zone role is the profile of someone the team now plans around, not around.
From blocking specialist to TD machine: targets doubled and yards more than doubled in Year 2.
TrendAJ Barner career arc (regular season)
| Year | G | Tgts | Rec | Yds | TDs | Tgt share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 15 | 38 | 30 | 245 | 4 | 8.0% |
| 2025 | 17 | 68 | 52 | 519 | 6 | 13.8% |
Year-over-year growth (2024 vs 2025)
| Metric | Total |
|---|---|
| Tgts 2024 | 38 |
| Tgts 2025 | 68 |
| Yds 2024 | 245 |
| Yds 2025 | 519 |
A 4th-round pick out of Michigan/Indiana, Barner was Seattle's TE2 behind Noah Fant as a rookie. 2025 is the takeover year: targets jumped from 38 to 68, his team target share climbed from 8.0% to 13.8%, and he scored 6 TDs after scoring 4 as a rookie.
Why it matters. Year 2 leaps separate role players from real offensive pieces. A 4th-round TE going from 38 to 68 targets and 245 to 519 yards while keeping a 6-TD red-zone role is the profile of someone the team now plans around, not around.
He replaced Noah Fant target-for-target — and then did more with the same volume.
SplitSeattle TE room, 2024 vs 2025
| Year | Player | Tgts | Yds | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Noah Fant | 64 | 500 | 1 |
| 2024 | AJ Barner | 38 | 245 | 4 |
| 2025 | AJ Barner | 68 | 519 | 6 |
| 2025 | Elijah Arroyo | 26 | 179 | 1 |
In 2024 Fant ran the TE1 role on 64 targets, 500 yards, 1 TD. After Seattle let him walk, Barner picked up almost the exact target volume — 68 targets — and out-produced Fant's full year in both yards (519) and TDs (6 vs 1). The handoff was so seamless the offense didn't lose a beat.
Why it matters. TE production is sticky to role, not name. Seattle replaced a $20M+ TE1 contract with a 4th-round Year-2 player who matched the snaps and outscored him 6-to-1 in the end zone — a roster-construction win, not just a player one.
Top-10 in receiving TDs among TEs in 2025 — alongside the All-Pro names.
Rare2025 receiving TDs, TEs (regular season)
| Player | TDs | Tgts | Yds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trey McBride | 11 | 169 | 1,239 |
| Dallas Goedert | 11 | 82 | 591 |
| Jake Ferguson | 8 | 102 | 600 |
| Colby Parkinson | 8 | 56 | 408 |
| Hunter Henry | 7 | 87 | 768 |
| Brock Bowers | 7 | 86 | 680 |
| George Kittle | 7 | 69 | 628 |
| AJ Barner | 6 | 68 | 519 |
| Tucker Kraft | 6 | 44 | 489 |
His 6 receiving TDs in 2025 sit in the top tier of the position, alongside Kittle (7), Bowers (7), and Tucker Kraft (6). He scored on 8.8% of his targets — a higher rate than McBride (6.5%) or Bowers (8.1%) — despite being asked to do far less route-running.
Why it matters. TD totals at TE usually track target volume — the leaders are also the most-targeted. Barner cracking the leaderboard on 68 targets (less than half of McBride's 169) means his per-look scoring rate is what's elite, not the volume.
Among 2024 rookie TEs he sits 3rd in career production — behind only Brock Bowers.
Comparison2024 TE draft class through 2025 (regular season)
| Player | Tgts | Rec | Yds | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brock Bowers | 239 | 176 | 1,874 | 12 |
| Theo Johnson | 117 | 74 | 859 | 6 |
| AJ Barner | 106 | 82 | 764 | 10 |
| Ja'Tavion Sanders | 77 | 62 | 532 | 2 |
Bowers is in a separate universe (1,874 yards, 12 TDs through 2 years — already an All-Pro). But after him, the next-most-productive TE from the 2024 class is AJ Barner with 10 career TDs — more than Theo Johnson (6, also a higher pick) and 5x Ja'Tavion Sanders.
Why it matters. Draft-class context strips away team and scheme. Barner was the 121st pick — 14 picks AFTER Theo Johnson and 20 after Ja'Tavion Sanders — yet he has more career TDs than both combined. That's a hit on a Day-3 swing.
Caught the only TE touchdown of Super Bowl LX — in a 29-13 Seattle win.
Trend2025 Seattle playoff run — Barner's box scores
| Round | Opp | Result | Tgts | Rec | Yds | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIV | SF | W 41-6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CON | LA | W 31-27 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 0 |
| SB LX | NE | W 29-13 | 4 | 4 | 54 | 1 |
Across the four TEs who played in Super Bowl LX (Barner, Austin Hooper, Hunter Henry, plus Seattle's backup), Barner was the only one with a receiving TD — a 16-yard deep score from Sam Darnold in the first half. He finished 4-for-4 for 54 yards, his most efficient line of the postseason and a fitting cap on a Year-2 leap that took him from blocking TE to scoring on the biggest stage.
Why it matters. Postseason production from a Day-3 TE is the rarest tier of value: it shows up in scarce, high-leverage games. A Super Bowl receiving TD on a championship team is the single line that follows him for the rest of his career.
Red-zone targets nearly doubled — from 7 looks to 13.
SplitRed-zone targets (≤20 yard line, regular season)
| Year | RZ Tgts | RZ TDs |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 7 | 4 |
| 2025 | 13 | 5 |
In 2024 Seattle looked his way 7 times inside the 20 — and he turned 4 of those into TDs (a 57% conversion rate). In 2025 that volume nearly doubled to 13 red-zone targets, 5 TDs — a slight efficiency dip in exchange for becoming the offense's go-to in-close option. The 6th regular-season TD (Wk16 vs LA) came from the 26-yard line, just outside the official red zone.
Why it matters. Red-zone target share is where TE roles get decided: it's the slice of the playbook where the position out-earns WRs because of size-matchups. Going from 7 to 13 inside-the-20 looks while keeping a near-40% TD rate is a real promotion in role, not just snap count.
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