Surprisingly, we may have gotten the spiciest comments from the two Seattle Seahawks offensive players that have been interviewed on Making a Champion. Only if you believe in reading tea leaves.
The Seattle Seahawks’ exploration of perspectives from the people who made the 2025 team champions rolls along with starting tight end, A.J. Barner. Barner took over the role last offseason, making Noah Fant a free agent release. He made an impact in the passing game, as a strong run-blocker, as the resident
Barn-Yard Tush Push specialist and as an aura farmer.
In discussing (with Jen Mueller and Bryan Walters) the increased physicality of the Los Angeles Rams matchups last year, he said: “People like to say, you know, ‘games aren’t different’, but I like to have a little more when we play division games.”
Still talking about the Rams matchup: “And the Rams got really good players. They got really good EDGEs, and those EDGEs are competitors too. I’m one of those people that, you know, I’m not really going to love up the EDGE’s. Some guys would be like, ‘man, you should be getting paid more’, or something like that… like, I like to get after it with those guys and let them know that I’m here to compete. And those guys are with that, so I have a lot of respect for them.”
That’s the type of strong and confident answer you want to hear from your stud TE, especially with the NFC West rival L.A. team acquiring All-Pro/legendary EDGE, Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns. Not only is Barner a warrior, but so is our franchise left tackle, Charles Cross. It’ll be tough, but we have guys that are up for the challenge.
Among many other answers that showed his personality, Barner also discussed what it was like going against an un-retired, future Hall-of-Famer in Philip Rivers. He explained: “I think it shows you that, you know, with that knowledge of the game, you can really make a lot of plays. Like you don’t have to be in your best physical shape; you don’t have to be moving light years ahead of everyone else. Like, if you know defenses and you know what you’re looking at and what you’re looking for— it can make a huge difference.”
Barner continued by saying, “as a young player, I think that’s one way to look at it. When you see a guy that’s been in the league for so long, it’s like, yeah, I mean, he just came right off the streets from five years. And it’s like, he knows what he’s looking for. So, I think that’s goes a long way.”
The players can tell who is good and why. Rewind with me one episode of this series for the tea leaves that you can call me crazy for or ponder along with me at the possibilities.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, last episode, on his relationship with Sam Darnold: “I love building that relationship. I tend to be good friends with my quarterbacks, um, in the past. Sam, obviously building that rapport with him, just becoming lifelong teammates, lifelong friends… it’s always cool.”
Does that “UM, IN THE PAST” just slap anyone else right in the face, like it did to me? It feels like a lowkey (even if unintentional) sneak diss of the previous passer, Geno Smith. We all know Smith-Njigba is not a young man who is good at pretending…
Okay, maybe that’s all reading too much into it.
JSN does go on to discuss discovering the on-field chemistry with Darnold: “When I would make a mistake, or he would make a mistake, we would always have clear communication, like: ‘hey, this is what I need you to do, and we’ll get it the next rep.’ I knew that was going to be something special and something that we could build on.”
Not everything is meant to be personal, so this could easily be nothing. If nothing else, its the unique things about his current QB that he enjoys.
To be fair, when Geno left, Seattle even further stabilized its O-line: a healthy Abe Lucas, the drafting of Grey Zabel and the Jalen Sundell breakout (you read that right) helped with that. The absolutely legendary leap of Smith-Njigba to OPOY in his third season is key and also correlated with the addition of an actually experience play-caller on offense (as Jaxon eloquently highlights in the above video).
The ‘could Geno have done the same with this team’ debate definitely has supporters on each side. Whichever side you stand on, don’t make the mistake of forgetting that Geno had a great 1.5-year run of efficiency in Seattle before moving behind a porous offensive line in Las Vegas. Is he now past his prime? I’m afraid his new gig with the Jets won’t be a gigantic upgrade in surroundings either.
It seems that, at the very least, Darnold’s calm demeanor was a better fit for the 2025 Seattle Seahawks than Smith’s fiery persona.
The thing that ties these two current offensive guys’ comments together is the advantage of veteran leadership and perspectives on the team. Smith-Njigba valued it from his quarterback and Barner recognized its depth of knowledge in an opponent.
Another good one was A.J. Barner on fellow tight end, Eric Saubert and his game-winning, walk-off 2-point conversion in the overtime comeback win of Week 16 to take the division and the top seed in the NFC. Barner expressed happiness for his teammate and said: “a guy like ‘Sauby’ just does his job, over, and over and over and did his job on that play, and that’s really what it is. And, you know, the ball found him because he was in the right spot at the right time.”
It feels like an intentional push that Seattle Seahawks leadership has pursued to find the right type of people for this franchise. From the mix of talent to mindset, to the ratio of young and ascending players to more veteran and knowledgeable players. There is enough grizzled vet leadership to be an advantage to the up-and-coming Seahawks players on this Mike Macdonald team.
