The Green Bay Packers reportedly agreed to a contract extension with tight end Tucker Kraft that gives the player an average of $23 million per season. Kraft is comparable to Seattle Seahawks tight end AJ Barner. If Kraft is getting paid lots more money, Barner should want that too. But when?
Kraft was a third-round selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, and he was added to be a good blocker and a quality receiver, though with emphasis on the former. Sound familiar? That is exactly what Barner was supposed to be when general manager John Schneider took him in the fourth round of the 2024 draft.
To make matters potentially more expensive for Seattle in the future, the Las Vegas Raiders agreed to an extension with one of their tight ends, Michael Mayer, on Saturday as well, according to NFL insider Ian Rapoport. Mayer's extension gives him as much as $45 million over three seasons.
Seattle Seahawks tight end AJ Barner has to be happy about Tucker Kraft's new deal with the Green Bay Packers
As Kraft's deal, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, will be worth as much as $92 million over four seasons, NFL teams have doled out a total of $137 million in new money to tight ends on Saturday. Barner has to be celebrating.
Seattle's top tight end isn't due for a new contract until after the 2027 season, so John Schneider doesn't need to fret about extending Barner now, but next offseason, he will. The market could be even higher by then, but even if it isn't, Barner's representatives have a starting point in negotiations.
In his three seasons, Kraft's best year is 2024, at least as far as being a receiver, when he caught 50 passes for 707 yards and seven touchdowns. He had six TDs in 2025, but he was limited to eight games with a knee injury. He's been a good blocker, though not elite.
The Raiders' Mayer isn't the top tight end on his team (Brock Bowers is), so the fact that he got $15 million per season on average doesn't exactly help the Seahawks when trying to work out a new deal with Barner. Barner is the top tight end on Seattle's roster.
Mayer was a second-round choice in 2023, and his best season as a receiver was last year, when he caught 35 passes for 328 yards. He has three touchdowns in his career. As a blocker, he is fine, but not $15 million-a-season fine.
In 2025, Barner had 52 receptions for 519 yards and 10 touchdowns in two seasons. He is great as a blocker most of the time, so one could infer that his asking price could be closer to Kraft's than to Mayer's new deal.
If AJ Barner is even better in his third season (he caught two passes on two targets for 19 yards in Week 1), his negotiating power will only increase. What seems clear is that the Seattle Seahawks need to keep him around for many more years, but doing so isn't going to come cheaply.
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