Read the full transcript from OC Bobby Slowik's media availability on August 4, 2026.

I think everyone wants to know how you feel Malik Willis is doing so far?

Bobby Slowik: I've been really, really pleased with Malik. Just his work ethic every day. What he's doing, just not with me; with the players, his relationships he's building with all of them. From the guys up front to the guys on defense to obviously the skills, he's really putting the time in. He's living in the facility. He's in my office probably every few days and we're just hanging out and kicking it. So I mean, he's all in on making sure mentally he's up to snuff on where he needs to be and feels confident. Then I think everyone can see when we're out in camp, when he's confident, when he's letting it rip, he's thrown some really nice balls. There's still a long way to go. There's still a lot of things we're working on as a whole offense and that includes the quarterback position. But his attitude and how he's attacking every day right now has been fantastic.

It's obviously intentional to keep him within the framework of the passing game, but once you do unleash him a little bit to scramble, get involved in the run game, how much of a dual threat do you really see him being?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, that's big time. We talk about it even in our quarterback meetings. It's always the fine line when you're in camp because the hardest thing to do when you're actually in season and you're memorizing the game plan and then you're going out and you're performing on game day; the athleticism, the moving away from contact comes easy. The hanging in there when you have to, maybe taking a hit and letting one rip to first in the progression or second in the progression is way harder. So they always will strain themselves to really focus on things like that in camp, but you know, he knows there's been a few in camp where we'd like him, 'Hey, man, like go run.' Like the opp is there. Then in the run game we've used him here and there, and that kind of is week to week dependent on what the defense gives us, what it presents to us and how we can take advantage of that. But just having the ability to do that and his willingness to do that is going to be huge for us.

What's it been like working with Kevin Patullo and his influence on how you guys go about designing this offense?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, KP, he's been great. Like just him – I mean, honestly, the whole offensive staff, I've had a joy of working with the entire offensive staff. I think we got really good assistance like from all the way down to our QCs. Those guys do a fantastic job. I think we have some of the best young guys in the league on offense, growing coaches. I think our position coaches have been great. It's going to be huge for us on offense, developing the young guys. It's going to be a critical part of our season, and our position coaches are all in on that. And then you know you got guys like Patullo who can come in and help me with the coordinator process, kind of bounce around at whatever position group is needed on that day, help supplement my coaching points, help give the position coach extra eyes. And then not only that, but he's helping me with scheme. He's really done a good job learning what it is that we do and how I see the game and how we view things, what we try to attack. And he's been constantly talking with me all the time to make sure when we get in season, like it's a full staff effort to put together a game plan so having him is huge for me.

I'd like to ask you about the offensive line. We know that Austin Jackson has had minor problems that he's dealing with right now. Where are you in putting the line together, and how important is it to keep everybody intact, especially Austin given his injury yesterday?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I think really at every position right now, our emphasis for our whole offense is competition. That's been the big thing all the way through. We got receivers with every which group, tight ends with every which group, we got backs with every which group. Probably the only place continuity is like huge if you can have it is up front. So the more we have all five guys out there, obviously the better it will service as we keep going through camp, but the reality of the NFL season is guys got to be ready to step up and jump in there. And I thought yesterday, I thought Charlie (Heck) was able to hop in with the ones. And you know, it wasn't perfect. Again, everybody needs to get better, but I thought he did a pretty good job in his responsibility on what he needed to do and we're going to continue to mix it up, as we kind of have guys that are in and out for a few days here and there. Up front, this is kind of the part of camp for that group where I would say it's the most stressful. Our defense now has as many presentations and looks as they're going to have. And we have as many run plays and protections in as we're going to have. So now everything kind of settles down, and really from here on out, it becomes, all right, can we really hammer our combinations? Can we really hammer our technique? Can we hammer how we handle games? All the finer points.

Last time we spoke to you, you mentioned how Malik's chemistry with receivers will be a work in progress. After his offseason throwing sessions that he had with some of the guys in Jacksonville, do you see that coming along?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I mean, for sure. I think from OTAs to now you see just the ball's in a much friendlier spot more often. He's letting it go earlier to a lot of guys, even guys he didn't necessarily get reps with in OTAs. I think him and Malik Washington clearly have put together a lot of work. He's very confident in how Malik's coming out of breaks right now, and he's continuing to build that chemistry with all the guys. And that's why it's so big that we keep mixing in who's going with them and kind of changing it up so he can keep building that rapport.

Coach Hafley has talked a little bit about when the offense makes a few plays, he'll kind of dial up the exotic style of the pressures a little bit. How is that competition been between you guys as play callers out here six days into camp?

Bobby Slowik: What's fun about camp, is until we get to what we call 'call it periods,' like unscripted periods where we're moving. He's calling it with no preparation. I'm calling it with no preparation. I guess the chalk battle is very limited, very limited. Like there's some times we're an awful situations and we know it. There's times they're in awful situations and they know it. And we want to amp up the pressure on both sides and see who responds. That's really what right now is about. It's not necessarily about the scheme. It's about who's going to respond to the different variety of presentations we give.

Do you have to take some like negative pass plays with a grain of salt because Malik Willis is not using one of his trademark skills and running the ball?

Bobby Slowik: I mean, yes and no, probably. I don't want to, you know what I mean? Like I said earlier, we got to get better all the way across the board from protections to routes to quarterback play to execution. We got a lot of young guys. We've got a lot of growing to do. We have a long way to go. I would say in a game, I think he's shown in his career, like if he needs to make one guy miss and make a play with his feet and his legs, he'll do that. But I think it's more productive for us as an offense to I mean, we got to get better. We got to clean it up.

How have you seen Malik Washington improve from last year to this year?

Bobby Slowik: I'd say right now, probably the most noticeable improvement – he's always had really good work ethic. The attitude has always been there. He's always just been hungry for coaching. But what he's done in OTAs and now through the offseason program when he was on his own to carrying it into practice is his footwork and how he's getting in and out of breaks, it's really clean right now. You know, you could tell he's really, really bought in to how we want to get to break points, how we want to release, and he's as good as he's looked since I've been here at that part of his game. That's been really fun to watch.

How do you see that kind of playing out once the season starts?

Bobby Slowik: Same as we're seeing on the field right now. Just the ability to do that. He's already a great ball in hand player. Now you get a chance to win and separate at the top of routes when we have bad leverage situations just with good footwork. Now you take chances that you would only have an opp to get the ball when it's premier. Now he can win even versus non premier stuff. So I think for him and for us as an offense it's huge.

As it relates to pre-snap motion, what do you view as some of the positive benefits and possible detriments with utilizing extensive motion?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I'd say you see both right now, right. Like we really amped that up today. Today was a big on the move motion day for us, and we didn't necessarily have as many pre-snap penalties as we've had in days before, but we definitely were not clean on our assignments on our locations. Snap points strenuous for the quarterback. Like it gets hard mentally, which is why it's huge you do that all the time. If we do it well, it just helps us put the defense in positions where we help ourselves and our assignment, which obviously what they've done here in the past and what Mike McDaniel does, he's been awesome at that. So we'd be foolish not to take advantage of that, but it takes a lot of work on our end and making sure we're on the operation is the biggest thing for us.

Where is Malik Willis relative to his comfort level with tons of movement?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, he's been great. They did it in Green Bay all the time. He's familiar with it. I'm sure they did it, I think, even in Tennessee when he came in as a rookie. We might have a few different ones that really within the last few years were created here, but he's been awesome on it.

Regarding Caleb Douglas, we've seen him make a catch in traffic and get hit by Jordyn Brooks and hold on to the ball. We've also seen JuJu Brents kind of strip the ball from him late. Tell me about his learning curve, his potential. And you guys have moved him around a little bit, so tell me about all of that with Caleb.

Bobby Slowik: He's been doing a good job. We've been moving him around with positions, really through camp. He's played multiple. He hasn't just played one, which is a credit to him. That's hard for a rookie to do. He's an immensely talented dude. He's got long arms. He's fast. He's got really good feet. He's tall. We just need him to continue to grow in his technique and his fundamentals of what we see receiver play entails at the Miami Dolphins, and he's doing that. Like it flashes. It shows when he does it. And then there's still little things that you can get away with in college for all our young guys that in the NFL you no longer can do. You know, the catch tuck how important that is, how fast that is. In college, you can probably catch, wait on your tuck for a good two seconds with no issues. I mean, the way our defense is going at the ball right now, if it's not instantaneous, it might come out. If our footwork isn't clean on our transitions, we're probably getting tackled. If we have clean footwork on our transitions, now we've got a chance to run through some stuff. So it's just little things like that for all our young guys, we got to continue to grow.

How does he use his size as both a receiver and a blocker? I know he's a rookie. Is he fairly polished at that or does he have a long way to go? Where is he as far as using that size?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, he's been great. He's been great. He's throwing it in there in the run game. All our receivers are doing a really good job embracing the run game. We've put them in some tough spots so far since we put the pads on, and they're all about it. And that's what we want. We want a tough, physical football team that's going to play with high effort and it's going to throw it in there. And we're going to strain until the whistle blows, and all of them young guys included are doing that. And then the size and obviously as far as receiver route running goes, like the catch radius is just, I mean, he makes some catches that probably most people can't. So that's huge.

What are your hopes for Chris Bell once you are able to get him at practice?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I mean he's still a long way away. We haven't even had a chance as coaches to work with him aside from in the meeting room. So we'll see when he's able to go.

A couple days in pads. Now, what's the biggest difference that you notice in Jonah Savaiinaea from what he put on tape last year to kind of how he's performing now that the pads are on here?

Bobby Slowik: Probably the No. 1 thing I'd say right now is confidence. I think he's just more confident in what he's doing, how he's doing it. The posture he's in in pass pro and in the run game, how he's firing off the ball, how confident he is in his assignment. I think it shows in his play. Again, all the way up front, it's not perfect. He still has some things we got to continue to work on as well, but I think the confidence for him right now is as good as I've seen it.

Do you think right tackle is just a position of concern now being that Austin Jakcson is banged up and have you considered cross training anybody, being that Kadyn Proctor has that experience at tackle, some other players that have bounced around as well?

Bobby Slowik: There's things we talk about as a coaching staff all the time. If this happens, do we do this? Do we get some guys that reps like here? A lot of times you don't really want to move a starter if you can help it because they're banking all the reps that you want at certain spots, but you really, when you get in season, you need to be fluid. That's just the reality of o-line in the NFL. Different things happen every year. So we try to cross train as many guys as we possibly can to be ready to roll, and we'll see where AJ's at.