SEATTLE – There is one sure thing when it comes to the Seattle Seahawks’ tight-end corps for the 2025 season – AJ Barner will be part of it.
Everything else feels up for grabs because of salary-cap issues and the arrival of a new offensive coordinator who could have his own view.
Noah Fant, the primary starter in 2024, has a $13.41 million cap hit for the final year of his contract in 2025, the seventh highest on the team.
The Seahawks, who are more than $30 million over the cap in effective cap space, could feel that’s a bigger number than they need at that spot, especially considering $8.91 million of that can be saved if he is released.
Pharaoh Brown, who was the third tight end in 2024, is an unrestricted free agent after battling through an injury-riddled season in which he made just eight catches for 65 yards and didn’t seem to grade out well blocking, which was expected to be his strength.
As we continue our review of the Seahawks’ position groups heading into the offseason, let’s look at the tight end room.
Starter
Noah Fant
Age: 27.
Snaps played in regular season: 569, 51.73% per Pro Football Reference.
Contract situation: Will be entering the final season of the two-year deal he signed last March that could pay him up to $21 million. Fant’s $8.49 million salary for 2025 is not guaranteed, and the Seahawks could save that as well as $510,000 in per-game roster bonuses if he is released.
Backups
AJ Barner
Age: 22.
Snaps played in regular season: 501, 45.55%.
Contract situation: Has three years remaining on his rookie contract, which can pay him as much as $4.77 million overall and includes a $960,000 salary in 2025.
Pharaoh Brown
Age: 30.
Snaps played in regular season: 264, 24%.
Contract situation: Now an unrestricted free agent after playing last season on a one-year deal that paid him $3.2 million.
Brady Russell
Age: 26.
Snaps played in regular season: 33, 3%.
Contract situation: Is an exclusive rights free agent, meaning if the Seahawks make him a qualifying offer he is bound to the team for the 2025 season.
Also on the roster: Tyler Mabry spent the season on the practice squad and played four snaps. He is now a free agent.
2024 in review
The Seahawks entered the season with a remade tight-end corps after cutting Will Dissly (who signed with the Chargers) and not matching the offer Colby Parkinson got from the Rams.
That led to re-signing Fant at two years and up to $21 million, signing Brown and drafting Barner at 121st overall to fill out the TE corps.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb talked optimistically of getting the tight ends involved in the offense as much as possible.
Fant and Brown suffered injuries in training camp that stunted their acclimation to the offense, and Barner had the typical rookie learning curve, arriving as a fourth-round pick out of Michigan with a perception that he would be more of a blocking tight end.
The tight ends got involved – the Seahawks’ 114 targets to tight ends ranked 16th in the NFL despite Fant missing three games and Brown missing two.
Fant finished with 48 receptions for 500 yards, the latter his most in his three seasons as a Seahawk after arriving as part of the Russell Wilson trade in 2022. He was rated as the 19th-best receiving tight end by Pro Football Focus and 29th overall.
Barner was second on the team among tight ends in catches with 30 for 245 and four touchdowns, with 20 of his receptions coming in the final nine games.
Brown, signed in the wake of a season in which he started 12 games for the Patriots and finished with the 12th-best grade of tight ends in 2023, never seemed to really find his footing after missing much of the preseason and the first two games due to injury and had only three catches until Nov. 24.
Brown got most of his snaps as an in-line tight end but finished with just the 49th-best run blocking grade from PFF and 71st overall.
Barner was 36th in run blocking and Fant just 71st, which seemed a fair indication of the Seahawks’ struggles, especially in clearing a path for sweeps and other runs at the edges.
2025 preview
So what now?
Fant’s cap hit is projected as the ninth highest of any tight end in the league in 2025, via Spotrac.com, which could make him a cap casualty.
Or maybe the Seahawks work out a short-term extension to add a year or two and bring his 2025 number down. He just turned 27 in November, so there’s still potential.
Releasing Fant would mean the Seahawks would have some work to do fill out the tight-end room with Brown also a free agent.
Brady Russell has been a valuable member of special teams the past two seasons but has played just 49 snaps on offense in 26 career NFL games.
The free-agent class of tight ends isn’t regarded as overly attractive.
Pro Football Focus has just one tight end on its list of the top 50 potential free agents, Juwan Johnson of the Saints. If the Seahawks hire Klint Kubiak, who spent the 2024 season as the offensive coordinator in New Orleans, to replace Grubb that becomes a potential option.
Other tight ends could become available as other teams begin making their own salary-cap cuts.
As for the draft, there are two tight ends generally expected to go in the first round – Colston Loveland of Michigan and Penn State’s Tyler Warren.
Warren, who had 1,230 receiving yards this season, likely won’t be available when the Seahawks pick at 18.
Loveland could be. He was Barner’s teammate for a year at Michigan in 2023 and was born in Goldendale in the Yakima Valley before attending high school in Gooding, Idaho, and doesn’t turn 21 until April 9.