AJ Barner — Week 2: A Direct Snap That Counted
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Barner took a direct snap on fourth and one at the Arizona 1 with 1:15 left and scored, after George Holani and Emanuel Wilson had been stopped for no gain on the two snaps before it. His receiving line was one target, one catch, 8 yards. Seattle's three tight-end targets went one each to Barner, Elijah Arroyo and a third tight end, in a 31–7 win over the Cardinals.
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24 to seven, Seahawks, a minute 15 left in the fourth quarter, fourth and one at the Arizona one, out of a Seattle timeout. The ball was snapped directly to AJ Barner, and he took it up the middle for the touchdown. +2.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and nothing at all in win probability, because the game was decided. The two snaps before it were George Holani for no gain on second and one and Emanuel Wilson for no gain on third and one. Before halftime Seattle had also handed it to Wilson on fourth and one from the same yard line and lost a yard. The one Seattle run from the one that got in was the tight end's.
The line: one carry, one yard, one touchdown; one target, one catch, eight yards. The catch was first and 10 at the Seattle 27 with 11 27 left in the second quarter, tied at seven, short right to the 35, +0.5 expected points. He was also flagged for holding in the fourth quarter, offset by a defensive hold on the same play.
Seattle threw to a tight end three times in 26 throws. Barner had the eight-yarder. Elijah Arroyo caught one for 17 yards on the first snap after Julian Love's interception in the third quarter. The third went to Saubert and lost 10. In Week 1 Arroyo did not appear in the play-by-play at all; this week he is in it, with the longest tight-end gain of the day.
Back in June the preview leaned underpriced on Barner, and the bet was the catches — 52 a year ago, second on the champions, about four targets a game — with the seven touchdowns, one of them on the ground, as the part it said not to count on, and the split with Arroyo as the thing that sizes the role. Week 1 was two catches for 13 and a direct snap on fourth and one that gained the yard and was wiped out by an offside flag. Sunday Seattle called it again on fourth and one, and it counted. Through two games the ledger is three targets, three catches, 21 yards, which is under the four a game the bet rests on, and one touchdown, which arrived from the column the preview called a bonus. Two games settle little, and the catches are still the part to watch. Seattle is at the Commanders on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When AJ Barner's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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