RENTON — The decision to use tight end AJ Barner as a quarterback in short-yardage situations in “Tush Push”-style plays came from the top.
“I don’t ask for much,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, whose forte is overseeing the defense, said Wednesday. “But that was something I asked for from our offense.”
Why a tight end and why Barner?
“He’s big,” Macdonald said of the 6 foot 6, 251 pounder.
Macdonald had seen it work to use a tight end in such a role during his time with the Baltimore Ravens with longtime standout Mark Andrews, who has 10 first downs on 15 rushing attempts for 21 yards in his career.
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One day in the spring, Macdonald told tight ends coach Mack Brown to tell Barner that Macdonald wanted to see if he could give it a shot.
“I was excited about it,” said Barner, a second-year player who was taken 121st overall in 2024 out of Michigan.
Barner played a lot of quarterback growing up, including through his sophomore year at Aurora (Ohio) High School before becoming a tight end and linebacker.
So the act of taking a snap from under center wasn’t new.
And so far, mostly so good.
The Seahawks have used Barner on six plays of either third- or fourth-and-one.
The Seahawks have converted all six, including a third-and-goal at the 1 for a touchdown on Nov. 2 at Washington. According to the Seahawks, it was the first time in franchise history a player whose primary position is tight end scored a rushing touchdown.
The play worked two more times in Sunday’s 44-22 win over Arizona, each time on third-and-one. The first conversion came in the first quarter and on the next play, Sam Darnold threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba to start a 35-0 onslaught in the first 23 minutes of the game.
It didn’t work as well once Sunday, when the Seahawks were called for a false start in the second quarter as Barner tried to get the play off when Olu Oluwatimi took over a center for the injured Jalen Sundell.
Once it was apparent Sundell might be sidelined, Barner and Darnold tried to quickly get some snaps in with Oluwatimi and working with a new center undoubtedly played a role in the timing being off.
“Have to make sure that doesn’t happen the rest of the year,” Barner said.
In general, the introduction of the play and Barner’s role in it has helped to alleviate some of the third-down issues the Seahawks had in 2024. They converted 37.6% of third downs last season, 21stin the NFL, but are at 39.2% this year and 16th.
“There’s some ball handling involved,” Macdonald said. “The ball is really important, so you want to make sure you take care of that first and foremost. He’s taken a lot of snaps over the course of the offseason. He was willing to put in the extra work, which is a credit to him.”
Barner said he began regularly taking snaps from all of the centers in practice to try to get the cadence and timing down.
“It’s definitely something I make an effort to make sure I get snaps,” Barner said.
Since the play is as physical as any in football, resembling a rugby scrum with 10-11 players on one side pushing against 11 on the other, it’s hard to practice. Teams do limited reps of full-pads, full-contact work, and rarely once the season begins.
“It’s definitely a trough play to practice, because we’re not really trying to be doing that against our defense, per se,” Barner said. “But the operation of it, the stance of it, we practice that part.”
The Seahawks tried it in the first quarter of the first game of the year against the 49ers, with Barner picking up 2 yards on a third-and-one.
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They tried it only one more time until the Oct. 20 win over Houston, again against Washington and two times against Arizona.
Scoring against Washington gave Barner his fifth TD of the season.
“It was cool for sure to just go execute and go get a yard (and score a TD),” he said. “Obviously want the running backs to score more than I do rushing the ball. But it’s definitely cool to get one every now and then. Hopefully I’ll have a few more this year.’’
Lawrence earns POW
As could have been anticipated, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence was named as the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week after scoring two touchdowns on fumble recoveries against Arizona.
Each time, the fumble was forced by linebacker Tyrice Knight rushing on a blitz.
That had Lawrence wishing they could have shared the award.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We’re definitely making a bond out there on the football field. That’s all that you want your team to do when you’re out there playing together is to come together and make a bond. That camaraderie goes a long way, and it hopefully can take us to the promised land.”
The two touchdowns weren’t all Lawrence did in the game as he had four tackles, three quarterback hits and half a sack.
It is the first Player of the Week honor for the Seahawks this year, though receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba won the NFC Award for Offensive Player of the Month for October.
Injury report: Horton, Jobe, Jones return
Three players who sat out the Arizona game because of injury — receiver Tory Horton, linebacker Ernest Jones IV (knee) and cornerback Josh Jobe (concussion) were back on the field Wednesday, listed as limited.
Macdonald said before practice he couldn’t say if any of the three will play Sunday against the Rams.
“We’re still going to work through those guys right now,” he said. “I don’t have an update on those guys. Looking positive, we’re optimistic. They’ll be working in some capacity today.”
Also listed as limited were WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (noninjury related, resting) and guard Grey Zabel (heel).
Two players did not participate — safety Coby Bryant (not injury related/personal matter) and center Jalen Sundell (knee), who has already been declared out.
Everyone else was a full participant, including receiver Jake Bobo, who missed the last two games with a calf injury.
Among those listed as full were receiver Cooper Kupp, who has been battling a hamstring injury and a wrist injury, and D-lineman Leonard Williams (wrist).
The Seahawks held a lighter practice Wednesday, same as they did last Wednesday following the long trip back from a Sunday night game at Washington. Macdonald felt the format of last week — a light practice that resembled a walk-through on Wednesday followed by normal practices on Thursday and Friday — worked out well and decided to keep to it for this week.
Notes
The Seahawks signed two players Wednesday to fill out their 17-man practice squad — cornerback Mike Reid and nose tackle Wy’Kevious “Bubba” Thomas. Thomas spent the offseason and training camp with the Seahawks after signing as an undrafted free agent out of South Alabama and adds depth at nose tackle with Jarran Reed out indefinitely after having wrist/thumb surgery on Monday.
Reid signed with Carolina as an undrafted free agent out of South Dakota last spring and was on the Panthers’ practice squad before being released last month.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.