When Barner entered the league, he wanted to make it known that he could be more than the “blocking tight end” label that was placed upon him during the draft process.
“I think it’s similar to Jax (Jaxon Smith-Njigba). You want to have visions for your players bigger than they have for themselves,” Macdonald said. “And these two guys, to their credit, this is their vision for their game, on where they wanted to take it from the day they stepped in the door or that we met them. All he’s done is attack it and make it come to life. I know we always felt like he could be a complete tight end in our league at an elite level, and he is on his way to being that. So especially in this offense, to have that threat where he’s not just an extra tackle or whatever out there. That’s big time. That’s big for us.”
On Sunday, Barner finished the game with 3 catches for 43 yards and one touchdown, with one of those receptions being a catch on third-and-9 to set up a Zach Charbonnet touchdown.
“AJ Barner has been coming up clutch all year,” Smith-Njigba said. “We’ve got a lot of elite guys across the board, so it’s awesome to use your playmakers to set up what’s next.”
Barner was the second leading receiver behind Smith-Njigba on Sunday.
“We all know what AJ is capable of and I am so confident in him as a quarterback,” Sam Darnold said. “Obviously, he does a lot of stuff that people don’t see, things that aren’t going to show up in the stat sheet. He does a great job in the pass game as well when we need him to. He stepped up in a big way for us there today.”
On the season as a whole, Barner has six touchdowns and 50 receptions for 505 yards.
“He’s never satisfied,” receiver Dareke Young said. “He wants all he can get, and we love that about him.”
