RENTON — The glow of winning a Super Bowl will never completely dim for Seahawks tight end AJ Barner.
But just a few days after scoring the first touchdown in the Super Bowl win over New England and celebrating with thousands of fans at the parade, Barner experienced how quickly it can fade.
At least a little.
As he explained Thursday, Barner had two surgeries the week after the Super Bowl win and parade, each to repair injuries that lingered all of last season. Barner and the team are keeping the details of exactly what body parts he had surgeries on under wraps for now.
But there were a lot of potential candidates.
Barner was named on injury reports consistently the second half of the season and into the playoffs, variously listed with hip, shoulder, knee, ankle, calf and elbow injuries. He was questionable for a November game against Arizona with a calf injury. Despite those issues, he played every game, on the field for 77% of all snaps.
“You go from winning the Super Bowl, doing the parade (to) getting two surgeries the next week,” Barner said. “People don’t really get to see that. And like it was awesome to reach that pinnacle, but it was like ‘all right, I’ve got to go back to the woods, like going to the dark, and go get right.’”
The good news is that Barner appears to be mending well. While he is not taking part in any on-field work during the team’s offseason program, he said that “by the time training camp rolls around, I’m going to be ready to go.”
Barner said some of the injuries were “stuff that I’ve been dealing with, honestly for my whole pro career. I’m somebody that like no matter how I’m feeling, I’m going to play, just like a lot of other guys in our locker room.”
The even better news for Seahawks fans is to wonder how much more productive a 100% healthy Barner may be in 2026.
Barner, certainly, sounds excited to find out.
“I’m going to feel much better, and I’m already feeling much better, and I think that’s where I’ll see strides,” he said. “I’m feeling good, and I’m chomping at the bit trying to get back out there.”
Despite the continual aches and pains in 2025, Barner turned in one of the best seasons by a tight end in Seahawks history.
His 52 receptions were the fourth-most by a tight end for a single season in team history (Jimmy Graham holds the record with 65 in 2016).
His receptions were the 16th most of any tight end in the league last season and his touchdowns the sixth most despite playing on a team that threw fewer passes than all but three other teams in the NFL and alongside Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose 119 receptions were the third most in the NFL.
Barner also had the 15th best run-blocking grade of any tight end from Pro Football Focus.
Then there was his pivotal role in the short-yardage offense, lining up at quarterback in “tush-push” style plays that the Seahawks renamed the “the Barn-Yard.”
On 10 running plays on third or fourth down and one yard to go, Barner picked up the first down nine times (he was stopped for no gain on a third down against the Rams in a November loss in Inglewood).
While there had been talk of outlawing the play, no action was taken this offseason, so it should remain a significant part of Seattle’s short-yardage plan again in 2026.
Add better health, and Barner could make an even bigger imprint on games in 2026. Barner said this week he’ll enter 2026 with the biggest of goals.
“I expect myself to be one of the best tight ends in the league,” he said. “And I think I’ve played up to that standard, not consistently maybe throughout the whole season, but definitely have done that. So I hold myself to a high standard.
“And the goal is to win championships and play in big games, and also bring that same mindset to training camp when I’m back out there with the guys. That’s how I’m feeling. I think I can take it to another level, and I think it (the surgeries and recovery) is going to make my job hopefully easier and my process leading up to gameday that much easier.”
All leading, he hopes, to making another Super Bowl appearance, and maybe another parade.
Barner stood out in both, making a 16-yard catch for the first touchdown of the game to put the Seahawks up 19-0 in the fourth quarter, then drawing notice a few days later when he showed up to the celebration in a fur coat (which he later revealed was a secondhand coat he bought for $20).
“It’s been a life-changing experience for all of us,” Barner said. “But at the same time it just becomes your reality, really, and the show goes on and your ambition now is it’s time to take the steps to hopefully get back there again. So it’s changed my life and my teammates life, but again when you prepare for those moments and they come true it’s like it was meant to happen.”
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.