RENTON, Wash. — Through five weeks, the Seattle Seahawks have one of the league’s most efficient offenses and the most explosive passing attack largely because of two bets made by the coaching staff and the front office.
In the span of one week, Seattle went all-in on Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the No. 1 receiving threat and replaced Geno Smith with Sam Darnold on a $100 million contract. Darnold, fresh off a Pro Bowl season in Minnesota, ranks third in expected points added per dropback and leads an offense that ranks eighth in EPA per play and No. 1 in explosive pass rate (all stats provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise).
Smith-Njigba ranks second in receiving yards (534), fifth in receptions (34) and first in yards per route run (4.20) among qualifying pass catchers. For context, the Los Angeles Rams’ Puka Nacua led the NFL last year by averaging 3.57 yards per route, and Cooper Kupp — then with the Rams, now with the Seahawks — averaged 3.12 yards in his 2021 triple crown season.
Another of Seattle’s bets is paying off, too: AJ Barner as TE1.
A 2024 fourth-round pick out of Michigan, Barner had a quiet rookie season with 30 receptions for 245 yards along with four touchdowns, a total he has already matched through five games. Barner is on pace for 48 receptions and 456 yards, far from All-Pro numbers but good enough to show up on the opposing scouting report and solidify himself as a legitimate weapon in a top-10 offense.
Even someone extremely optimistic about the prospect of Darnold and Smith-Njigba leading a top-tier offense could have reasonably questioned whether the latter would have a true co-star. The DK Metcalf trade left that in doubt, and the signings of 32-year-old Kupp and 30-year-old Marquez Valdes-Scantling didn’t exactly quiet those concerns. Neither did using a second-round pick on tight end Elijah Arroyo and a fifth-rounder on receiver Tory Horton, even though both rookies have potential to be high-level pass catchers.
Now there’s no question who the No. 2 is in Seattle: Barner.
“He’s a sparkplug for our whole football team,” coach Mike 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 he cares about our football team, and we love him for it.”
Statistically, Kupp is Seattle’s second-leading receiver by targets (29), catches (21), yards (221), first downs (11) and yards per route (1.44). Functionally, though, Barner is arguably just as much, if not more, of a matchup problem — especially in the red zone, where he ranks second leaguewide in touchdown catches — because he can play with power or finesse depending on the situation.
“You give him a contested or an open catch, and he’ll catch both of them the same way,” said linebacker Tyrice Knight, a friend of Barner’s who was drafted three spots ahead of him in 2024. “Even when you think you’ve got him covered, you’ve got your arm in there, you’ve got to fight through because he’s got strong hands.”
Listed at 6 foot 6 and 251 pounds, Barner is a long strider with power to shed tacklers and plow forward when fighting for extra yards. This showed when he scored his second touchdown in Seattle’s 38-35 loss to the Bucs on Sunday. On first-and-goal from the 6 in the fourth quarter, Barner ran an out route and was grabbed by linebacker Lavonte David several yards short of the end zone. Barner dipped his shoulders, and David slid to the turf, then Barner walked in to tie the game at 28.
Show ’em how it’s done @_ajbarner_ 🤝
First multi-touchdown game of his career.
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/GGXpbgEgtz
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) October 5, 2025
Barner is also a good athlete who moves well in space. That’s showing up, too. Against Arizona, he beat linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither on a double move and caught an easy 16-yard touchdown.
On Sunday, Barner ran a short hitch route on second-and-15 in the fourth quarter. He felt the route was covered initially, and that Darnold needed an outlet. As Darnold scrambled, Barner turned and ran toward the end zone, a linebacker on his hip. Barner jabbed, separated from the linebacker and worked back toward the sideline near Darnold, creating space for the quarterback to hit him for 10 yards. Seattle converted on third down and eventually scored on Barner’s play against David.
Seattle saw flashes of all this in the draft process and during Barner’s rookie season. His development was likely part of the logic behind releasing Noah Fant just a few days before training camp this summer. Barner has seamlessly taken over the lead role in an offense that deploys multiple tight ends at the third-highest rate in the league. This offense is built for a tight end to shine, and Barner is taking advantage.
“I’m able to get open and get an opportunity,” Barner said. “I feel like Seattle’s a great fit for me. I always characterize my college career as I was a misfit. I went to Indiana, I went to Michigan, didn’t really have all the things work out for me. When I came to Seattle, I was like, ‘This is home, this is where I’m meant to be.’”
In his last two seasons at Indiana, Barner caught 42 passes for 361 yards and four touchdowns. On Michigan’s national championship team in 2023, he had 249 yards and more drops (two) than touchdowns (one) in 15 games. In his annual draft guide, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler gave Barner a fifth-round grade and concluded that although his college resume wasn’t that of a playmaking receiver, “He is a solid athlete with pass-catching upside and the play personality to handle run-blocking duties.”
Brugler’s assessment was accurate, including the personality part. Barner is a very willing run blocker who seemingly enjoys that part of his game as much as he likes catching passes.
“He’s done a lot of unselfish work on our offense a lot of the time,” Macdonald said. “In the pass protection and run game, he takes a lot of pride in all those things.”
Barner is also supremely confident in his and his teammates’ abilities, and he isn’t afraid to voice it. At a time when NFL players are often spouting cliches to avoid making headlines or providing bulletin board material, Barner talks the talk with faith that he and everyone in his orbit will do the walking.
He repeatedly hyped up Darnold in training camp and did so again Sunday after the quarterback threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns in the loss, saying: “We have a very special quarterback here, and I think people are starting to find that out.”
During a training camp chat in August, Barner was asked whether he had anything to prove this season as a pass catcher. “I just need to get the ball more and make the plays with it,” he said, “and I think people need to start showing me love and giving me my respect.”
Later in training camp, Barner said, “I feel like I’m one of the best run-blocking tight ends in the league, and I’m not just that, either.”
Because of his attitude and the work he puts in to back up those claims, Barner is becoming one of Seattle’s leaders on offense. He’s similar to linebacker Ernest Jones IV in that way. Jones is one of Seattle’s tone-setters on defense. Barner wants his position group to mirror that on offense. That type of mindset commands respect and inspires confidence inside Seattle’s locker room, particularly when paired with a willingness to battle in the trenches.
“The way he attacked the offseason, this is what we envisioned for him, being this type of player,” Macdonald said. “But you’ve got to put the work in. You’ve got to go through all the steps. You can’t just say it and show up, and it happens. You’ve got to train, train with purpose and intent and do it every day. That’s what he does.”
The work ethic is among the reasons Barner’s touchdown strut, which he cooked up with backup running back Kenny McIntosh last year, has become just as popular as Leonard Williams’ “Big Cat” sack celebration. Barner holds his arms parallel to the ground and swings them side to side while slowly stomping forward like Godzilla demolishing a city. Then he caps it off by spiking the football (or by punting it in the crowd, which he did after his second score on Sunday). The last few times he has scored, teammates have done the celebration with him.
There’s no official name for it yet. “Barn Step” and “Barn Stomp” are a couple of possibilities he floated Sunday. The name doesn’t matter for now, as long as he keeps earning opportunities to do it. If these first five weeks are any indication, there will no doubt be plenty more celebrations this season.