Seahawks tight end AJ Barner becomes touchdown maker

AJ Barner went to school this offseason.

No, not college. He’s way out of there. The native of Aurora, Ohio, attended and played for Indiana from 2020 through 2022 then Michigan for 2023. The Seahawks drafted him in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL draft.

Barner went to Tight End U.

After he had 30 catches and four touchdowns as a rookie with Seattle last season, Barner sat down with Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald. They discussed his goal: Being the best tight end.

Not just in the NFC West, where San Francisco’s George Kittle and Arizona’s Trey McBride play. In the league.

Then this summer, the 23-year-old Barner went to Tight End University.

Retired, one-time Seahawks Greg Olsen, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and the 49ers’ Kittle founded the annual training program for their position in 2021. It’s a self-described “immersive, three-day program,” only for NFL tight ends.

“Over the course of the summit, attendees are able to bond, collaborate with, and learn amongst their peers while participating in a variety of activities including film study, on-field drills, recovery, rehabilitation, and more,” Tight End University promotions says.

Current players and retired tight ends teach and drill over days in Nashville, Tennessee in late June. That’s where Barner was this summer, soon after the Seahawks’ mandatory minicamp ended.

“The Tight End U is phenomenal,” Barner said Wednesday, four days before his Seahawks (3-2) play at surprising Jacksonville (4-1). “Just to take notes, learn from those guys, ask questions — not only about things they do on the field, but off the field with their recovery, their time away from football.”

Barner says going also raised awareness by those around the league of his emerging game.

“Just to get the respect of other tight ends and know that they see you (is gratifying),” he said. “They see the work that you’re putting in. That was huge.

“And to be able to ask questions, like I said, is just great. Tight end is a position, too, where a lot of these guys are more than willing to help, which is cool to see.”

Macdonald, his Seahawks assistant coaches and teammates often talk of how particularly bonded Seattle’s tight ends are. They are Barner, eighth-year veteran Eric Saubert and rookies Elijah Arroyo and Nick Kallerup.

“I think any tight end room that you go to is a very tight knit group,” Barner said.

“It’s the same type of thing at Tight End U.”

Olsen was a three-time Pro Bowl tight end. He played his last of 15 NFL seasons for the Seahawks in 2020. He co-founded Tight End University with Kittle and Kelce a few months after he retired.

“It really just started organically. ..I’d gotten to know George Kittle; we have the same agent,” Olsen told the Ross Tucker Football Podcast in June.

“Maybe there’s something deeper. Maybe there’s something bigger that we could run, like an actual summit and have guys come in.” Taylor Swift attends Tight End U.

When it began, Tight End University had about 50 attendees at Lipscomb University, a small, private school in the neighborhoods outside downtown Nashville’s core.

Now about 80 tight ends come. Their families, spouses and girlfriends come, too. There is a large welcoming event now for them. Olsen, Kittle and Kelce put on a concert. This year they also had a golf outing.

It got big enough to move from Lipscomb to Vanderbilt.

Big became huge at Tight End U. this summer. Taylor Swift showed up, to support her guy Kelce.

Swift was the concert this summer. She surprised the tight ends and their guests performing “Shake it Off.”

“It’s just a blast,” Olsen, now an NFL game analyst for Fox television, said. “It’s a mix of football. It’s a mix of classroom. … There’s just a lot of fun, fellowship, getting to know one another.

“It’s really cool for the young guys.”

Including rookies.

“You’ve got guys who’ve never played a down in the NFL,” Olsen said, “and there in the classroom listening to Travis Kelce teach them about route running and coverage recognition, and Kittle’s doing run-blocking techniques.

“It’s a really unique and special group. The guys just love it.”

Barner said it’s not invitation-only. Unless you count getting drafted and signing into the league as an invitation.

“All tight ends in the league can go,” he said.

AJ Barner breaks out

Barner, and the Seahawks, are reaping the benefits of his schooling and Tight End U.

Macdonald, general manager John Schneider and their staffs are ulta confident in Barner.

They are so confident, the Seahawks cut starting, veteran tight end Noah Fant in July, before the final season of his two-year, $21 million contract with Seattle.

Barner is rewarding that faith. Last weekend against Tampa Bay, Barner set career highs with seven catches for 53 yards and two touchdown passes from Sam Darnold. Both of his scores were tying touchdowns in the second half, before Seattle’s defense imploded in a 38-35 loss.

Barner has four touchdowns this season. That’s as many as he had in 17 games last season as a rookie. He has three TDs in the last two games.

It’s obvious, five games into being the team’s new quarterback, Darnold trusts Barner. And it’s growing by the week.

“He’s just a good player. I think flat out he’s a really good player,” Darnold said

Opposing defenses are focusing on covering Seahawks wide receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba, second in the NFL in receiving yards, coming off a team record-tying 100-catch season, and former Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp. They can’t focus on everybody.

That’s made the Tight End U. graduate a frequent choice for Darnold in his pass-progression reads this season.

“He’s a spark plug for our whole football team,” Macdonald said. “This guy’s got a great mentality. He’s got swag to him. He’s got an edge. He’s got toughness. He’s got a great spirit about him, where it’s not just for our offense, but cares about our football team. And we love him for it.”

Coaches love that Barner is a dogged blocker while becoming a more established pass catcher.

“He has done a lot of unselfish work on our offense a lot of the time. In the pass protection and run game, he takes a lot of pride in all those things,” Macdonald said.

“As we like to say, the ball finds energy. And when you do things right and do it consistently, you tend to get rewarded for that type of stuff. I think that’s what we’re seeing with him. When we find him the ball, good things have been happening.”

AJ Barner’s high goals

Barner isn’t short on confidence. He speaks it. He has since the Saturday in the spring of 2024 the Seahawks selected him on the third day of the draft.

“The type of tight end that I play, I can do the run-block, the pass-block, catching the ball,” he said this summer.

That was on the second day of his second training camp.

On that second day as a starting tight end in the NFL post-Fant getting cut, Barner raised some eyebrows when he said July 24: “The tight end is the tip of the spear, leading the charge really. Obviously, the whole O-line is going to be in the front line, but we’re on the edge. We have to make sure we create a new line of scrimmage and that’s something that I’m very passionate about, and excited to do.

“It’s something that I can be one of the best in the league at doing.”

Five games into his first season as a primary tight end in the NFL, the former star linebacker at Aurora High School in northeast Ohio is not backing off stating his goals. Barner said Wednesday he wants to be an elite tight end in the league.

“Again, I just feel like I have the talents to do that,” he said.

“When you watch the film and you see guys that do it play in and play out and the techniques, they’re moving guys off the ball, not just position-blocking people. And (they are) well-rounded in all those phases, as well. You have some tight ends that really don’t mix it up in the trenches, you have guys that are more just blockers, and you also have a lot of tight ends that do both.

“There’s some very talented players in this league, especially in our division, too. The Rams have great tight ends. George (Kittle), McBride (of) the Cardinals. We watch all this tape, right? And you see these guys on tape because we’re playing a lot of the same teams in the division.

“There’s a lot of great tight ends in the league. But I think the guys that can do it all are those unicorns.”

So where does Barner feel he ranks already, 22 games into his NFL career, among the elite tight ends, most of whom he’s worked with at Tight End U.?

“Right now, I have a lot of work to do,” he said. “But I think my ceiling is right up there with them.

“I had a great game this week, and people are starting to take notice. But there’s a lot more for me to do.”