The Seattle Seahawks spent most of their draft bolstering the trenches on both sides of the ball. Many of their picks were offensive and defensive linemen. However, the one offensive pick that wasn’t necessarily exclusively a lineman was Michigan tight end AJ Barner.
Barner, who recently turned 22 on Friday, was selected in the fourth round with the 121st overall pick. Initially, this seemed to be filling out tight end depth behind Noah Fant, specifically to help as a blocking tight end. But there are those who believe he has untapped potential as a receiving threat.
Whatever the Seahawks have in store for the former Wolverine, he is up for the task, and said as much recently to the media.
New #Seahawks TE AJ Barner: "If you ask me to go out there and catch 10 passes a game, I’ll go do that. If you ask me to man up the C-gap and go be physical, I’ll go do that. If you ask me to play on every special team, I’ll go do that. … I love playing physical football."
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) April 27, 2024
Head coach Mike Macdonald has made it perfectly clear he is looking for a certain type of player who wants to be in Seattle. He and his staff are looking for physicality. With Barner coming straight from Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines, it seems he fits the mold to a T.
Whatever the Seahawks have in store for Barner, hopefully he is utilized properly. One of my personal biggest frustrations with how Seattle’s offense has operated for a few years now is the lack of tight end usage. The Seahawks had three talented players in Fant, Colby Parkinson and Will Dissly… yet offensive coordinator Shane Waldron seemingly forgot he had them as options.
Parkinson and Dissly are no longer in the Emerald City, but Fant remains. I want to put trust in new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to figure out a way to get both Fant and Barner involved in the game.
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