Read the full transcript from OC Bobby Slowik's media availability on June 4, 2026.
Obviously it's a red zone day so there should be a lot of touchdowns, but I'm glad to see that the offense is having some success. Do you contribute the minicamp success that you guys are having to no new installs and just repetitive things that you guys are doing?
Bobby Slowik: I think there's always multiple things at play. This will be the third time we had gone through the install at this point with very, very little new wrinkles, but we got a lot of new faces out there, especially when it's a lot of 7-on-7. There's a lot of new faces. So everybody kind of getting on the same page, knowing what they're doing. You just can see the confidence grow, and the big thing for us, I know I've said this before and I'll probably say it again through the course of this, is this time of year is all about the individual, the fundamentals, the technique of what we're doing and trying to see that when you put a defense across from you. You can't even get there if you don't really know what you're doing yet. So I think that definitely has helped, that we've chilled out once we got the base stuff in, we've chilled out and just let them go work, and then really, just a lot of improvement across the board. We still got a long way to go at every spot, but everybody's getting better which has been fun to watch.
What's the impression you get of the chemistry at this point with Malik Willis and his receivers, as a lot of these guys haven't worked together and they are for the first time now?
Bobby Slowik: It's an ongoing process, and it's probably going to be an ongoing process all the way up to the regular season starts. That's how it always is. There's a lot of people in and out right now. There's a few guys Malik works with pretty consistently, like Malik Washington, (Jalen) Tolbert's in there an awful lot. And then we try to mix it up here and there, get some fresh faces, so that's going to throw chemistry off. It's nice to see as we've kept banking reps through the offseason, I feel like both the receivers and Malik have gotten more confident in what they're doing, where they're going to be, how different guys come out of breaks. We throw routes on air and it's not going to be one hundred percent completion yet in routes on air. Everybody comes out of different routes different. So just getting the feel for that takes time and they're doing the best they can. They're putting in work even outside of what we ask them to do so it's just been a fun group to be a part of.
I know it's early, but can you already see the benefits of Jonah Savaiinaea switching back to the right side?
Bobby Slowik: I think you can see, he's just confident. I think right now he's just confident in what he's been doing. I do think there's a little bit of riding a bike. He did the right side for so long, got used to the left. Now going back to the right, he was excited about it, but there was a little bit of, 'Okay, is this going to be right away? How long is this going to take?' And I think he picked up the feel for it really quickly, which has been fun to see, and he's dedicated a lot of time. I think right or left, regardless of that right now for him, he's put in so much time to what he needs to improve upon. I would like to think it would have gotten better anyway, so I really like where he's at right now.
With Quinn Ewers, obviously you have experience from him from last year. He got those starts and those opportunities. The offense has a little bit of carryover for him. What steps do you hope that he takes in Year 2?
Bobby Slowik: I've really liked what Quinn's done. And the whole room – I think in the quarterback room in particular – has really grown. Even for Quinn, like you referenced, there are some things we do that's the same, and there's some things that we're going to do that are different. And then there's some things that we did last year that we'll just like talk about and coach differently, and I think that's harder than people realize when you have all these ingrained reps at this one thing, and then we're going to do the same thing, but a little different. That takes longer than you would expect it to, and in particular, the last three days, I really think you've seen Quinn take the next step of, 'All right, I'm owning what this is right now. Let me take advantage of kind of the little bit I already know and let me go out and just play what I see and play convicted and let it rip.' And I would ask he does the same thing as we keep going through camp. Play disciplined, stick to the fundamentals as often as we can and then react to what you see, and a lot of times when he just goes and he plays and he reacts, he does some really cool stuff.
Going back to the concept of installing and building the offense up over the course of time, within that comes a lot of short passes to the backs or checkdowns. Is there a difference between a good checkdown and a bad checkdown in your opinion?
Bobby Slowik: Absolutely. Rarely do I coach to throw a blanketed checkdown. That's usually not great ball. Probably with our group right now, if our checkdown's blanketed, I'd say we've got to go off schedule. I think it's a little bit, it's interesting right now with our install, like we actually have a pretty good balance of deep shots and some short throws and the intermediates. We're getting a lot of short throws and intermediates right now, and just the way our defense is kind of built, like the deep shots are hard to come by. That's kind of what they hang their hat on. So every now and then we try to get some going where, we're going to push it and maybe we shouldn't push it, but we just need the reps at it. But the flip side is it's like a great exercise for our quarterbacks. Staying disciplined is one of the hardest things to do at that position, period, through the course of a season. It's hard to get over 70 percent completion. Like you have to be an extremely disciplined player and them being able to get a whole lot of reps at that, I think will wind up benefiting us.
Ollie Gordon II's size, what does that bring to this backfield? And when I asked him if he wants a bigger workload. He said of course what the coaches want, but he feels he can take the reps.
Bobby Slowik: You feel the size, right, like I think that's the biggest thing with Ollie is not only is he big, he runs big. You know when he's in the game and right now we don't have pads on, but when we have pads on like you're going to hear him run. It's not one where he's just going to silently kind of sneak through the line of scrimmage. Everybody's going to feel. It's going to sound like trash cans are banging back there, you know what I mean? And there's something to that. Like the o-line gets energy from that when they feel the physicality from a runner. So I think that's one thing he's always had which we're always going to embrace. I really like with Ollie, like he's trying hard to take steps in the pass game and in pass pro. He's trying not to be just a run only back and really that's what he's working on right now, and he's been getting better at that every day, especially the protection aspect of it. That's a physical part of the game and it's a really important part of the game and it's a mental challenge. He's owning that part where now we can use him in a lot of different ways, where every time he's on the field, we're not just running downhill, but we definitely are going to take advantage of it when we get the opportunity.
Along those lines, what has Jaylen Wright shown you some with more opportunities here with De'Von Achane not yet running with the team?
Bobby Slowik: He's another good example of a guy who's just getting a lot more confident and comfortable with what we're doing, what we're calling, how we're doing it. And you can see the difference when he's comfortable, like my man has some speed. He's got juice. I think everybody can see it when he opens up and it shows up more and more, the more confident he is in what exactly is going on around him. So that's really what we're emphasizing with him. Then same deal, like the run game is the run game, always going to emphasize that for the backs. Can we grow in protection? Can we grow in the pass game? Can we shore up things like that.
Running backs were used big time in the pass game last year. You were here. You know what Achane can do. Is there still going to be that heavy emphasis on that, because there's a tendency with Malik to run instead of check down. You had a tendency in Houston to throw downfield and not utilize the running backs as much. So I'm kind of curious how you balance that?
Bobby Slowik: I think it goes back to like the initial conversation we had way back when I first got introduced here. Everything I try to do is keep a defense off balance, so there absolutely is going to be part of that and then you'll see some of it in walkthrough when we're just trying to get a rep that won't show up in practice and vice versa. But we want to do it all. Then we're going to have these core things we want to hang our hat on, but there's going to be times the back get out and we emphasize the back getting out. We're going to use De'Von, we're going to use Ollie, we're going to use J. Wright (Jaylen Wright) to get out and they're the primary read. There's going to be other times they're out as a checkdown. There's going to be other times they're out as window dressing and the other times they're in in max pro. We're going to mix it up pretty good.
Are you emphasizing that to Malik Willis to use those running backs in the passing game even more than he has in the past?
Bobby Slowik: Yeah, like everything, when it's part of our progression, part of the play, part of where we want the ball to potentially go. He knows that's a big part of what we're doing.
What have you learned about Kadyn Proctor in the month you've been working with him?
Bobby Slowik: Yeah, it's probably a better question honestly for the o-line guys, just the nature of OTAs. I'm with them a little less. I have been able to spend a decent amount of time with him though, and I've just liked his excitement for football. He really wants to be a great player. He doesn't just want to be good, he wants to be great. And that hunger you can see in him when he's out on the field right now, he practices like he's hungry. We got a lot to clean up and again, a long way to go with all these guys with footwork, with hand placement, with scheme. But you can see when the fundamentals, the hands are right; he has it in him. Like, I mean, it is stout. It is powerful. So we're just excited to get all those guys out there and really have the whole eleven.
