Tight ends are the talk of the town this week.
As many of the NFL’s “chess knights” – as Mike Macdonald calls them – attend the sixth annual Tight End University, a couple of the top guys also have received new contracts.
All of this activity — a month out from training camp – brings the focus in Seattle on the Seahawks’ two young tight ends, AJ Barner and Elijah Arroyo. Both are entering big seasons, for different reasons.
Barner is going into Year 3 and already has done enough to merit a nice extension in 2027, and his value is being defined early this summer.
This week, fellow ascending tight ends Kyle Pitts and Brenton Strange both got paid. Atlanta extended Pitts for $18 million a year, and Jacksonville gave Strange a new deal that could be worth $16 million a year (but might be more like $14 million base).
Barner is not going to be paid like Pitts or Trey McBride and George Kittle, who lead NFL tight ends at $19 million a year. But he figures to be in the next group – the one that includes Strange, Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, Dalton Schultz and Jake Ferguson.
That means $12 million to $13 million a year. John Schneider will pay it – he never turns down a chance to pay a tight end.
Barner, who is coming off two surgeries, is working out with other NFL tight ends at TEU in Nashville this week. Other Seattle tight ends are there as well – with the notable exception of Arroyo, who missed part of offseason workouts with an apparently lingering knee injury.
Arroyo might be skipping TEU for the World Cup, but he apparently has been working with NFL trainer Pete Bommarito.
More than once this offseason, Macdonald has mentioned Arroyo as a player who needs to step up in 2027.
We were never a big fan of using the 50th pick on him last year – largely due to his injury history. That turned out to be an issue in his rookie season, as he missed the last four games of the season and was a non-factor in the postseason.
He is kind of a bonus weapon for Macdonald, new OC Brian Fleury and Sam Darnold. But he needs to stay healthy to be of any use.
Macdonald seems to have confidence – at least outwardly. At one point, he said, “Elijah Arroyo is having a great offseason. Great opportunity to take his game to another level — and he’s attacking it.”
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