Tight end AJ Barner is no stranger to having to work his way up a depth chart, having done so in his high school and collegiate career. The 2020 Aurora Greenmen graduate will once again work to climb the ladder after being drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round of the NFL Draft on April 27.
“It has been my goal for a long time but it is something that I knew was always going to happen as long as I kept my head down and kept working,” Barner told The Weekly Villager on May 7. “I am extremely excited about it but it is also another goal for me to check off my list. I am very excited to be an NFL player and am super grateful, but I have a lot more goals to accomplish.”
The 6-foot-6 tight end becomes only the second Aurora alum to be drafted by an NFL team with the first being Tom Curtis, who was selected by the Miami Dolphins in 1970.
Barner has already participated in the Seahawks’ mandatory rookie training camp and will continue to train this summer to get ready for his first career NFL game.
For Barner, playing football was something that he and his father bonded over after his dad played college football at Kent State University and coached him throughout his childhood.
He originally played quarterback and middle linebacker but seemed destined for a defensive role when he entered high school. He started on the freshman team and was elevated to junior varsity in his sophomore year.
Between Barner’s sophomore and junior year, his body rapidly matured and he grew to 6-oot-4.
Coach Bob Mihalik acknowledged that Barner was a late bloomer.
“He was always athletic but he was skinny,” said the 23-year Coach. “He was 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds when he was a freshman in high school and played some quarterback and linebacker and he really did not switch to tight end until his junior year when he started getting some height and he really shined on defense.”
Barner became a starter in his junior season and split time on both sides of the ball, playing linebacker and tight end. In two years as a starter, he caught 18 passes for 186 yards and four touchdowns and recorded 258 tackles, 19 for losses, nine sacks, 11 pass break-ups, four caused fumbles and three fumble recoveries.
Mihalik noted that Barner’s physical style of play earned him several offers from Division I schools and had the choice to become a defensive or offensive player but chose to focus on being a tight end when he enrolled at the University of Indiana.
Barner said he chose Indiana because it was one of the first schools that had started recruiting him and felt like there was a role he could immediately fill.
“I think his aggressiveness and violence on the defensive side of the ball when he played for us, transcended to the offensive side in college and what most of the NFL scouts liked about him was his physicality and his violence,” Mihalik said.
He played mostly on special teams in his freshman season but became the starting tight end at the beginning of his sophomore year and spent two years with the Hoosiers as their starting tight end.
After the end of his junior season, Barner entered the transfer portal and joined Big Ten rival the University of Michigan.
“I transferred just because the program was struggling,” Barner said. “As a college athlete, you only have so many years eligibility-wise so it just made sense for me to leave and be at a place where I could compete for a national championship and be on a bigger stage.”
Barner had 22 receptions for 249 yards and one touchdown in a season when the Wolverines went undefeated en route to winning the NCAA College National Championship.
“It just meant everything,” Barner added. “You play any sport to win and that is exactly what we did and the goal that we set out for ourselves was to win the national championship and that is what happened.”
But Barner’s football journey was far from over as he was selected by the Seahawks in the NFL draft.
Although he now dons a green jersey, the maize and blue still runs deep as he will play for first-year Coach Mike Macdonald, Michigan’s former defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, his former assistant special teams coach from Michigan.
“It is definitely a good thing to have connections with coaches that you play for and since I played at Michigan and he has been at Michigan before, I definitely know what he is expecting and the kind of football he wants to play,” Barner said.
