Read the full transcript from OC Bobby Slowik's media availability on May 12, 2026.
What excites you about what Malik Willis can do?
Bobby Slowik: Really talented individual. Can spin the ball all over the field, can throw the ball everywhere, can run, obviously, can use his legs. He's tough, but honestly, what I've enjoyed the most so far is getting to know him. The person is really fun to be around. He's really energetic. He infuses everybody with a lot of energy, just makes you want to kind of be involved in whatever he's doing, and he's been fun to coach. We've had great conversations when we've been in the meeting room, kind of going through some scheme. We're in the early stages of the scheme stuff, that takes a back seat right now. Most of our talks right now are like fundamentals, and he's all about what we're doing. It's very similar to what he did in Green Bay and we're just having a lot of fun right now. It's a fun room.
Where did your mind immediately go when you found out you were getting him and maybe all the things you could plan for with his skill set?
Bobby Slowik: Yeah, honestly, there's so many things that still have to be settled at that point with the roster and who you know is going to be on the team and where everybody's going to wind up falling that I kind of just – I was excited about the player, and as I've gotten to know the person, I've been very excited about the person. And it doesn't really go beyond that at the time, because as you go through the offseason – this is really for everybody – you learn a lot about them. They learn a lot about you. You learn a lot about your unit. Things can kind of go a lot of different ways as you keep going through the offseason. I was mainly just excited that you get a really talented player in the building and then I've been more excited now that he's been here and I've gotten to know him, and just seeing how he handles himself and how he goes around the building and even outside the building, so I'm excited.
When you're trying to build an offense for a first-time starter, how much do you – walk me through the process of blending what you want to do with his strengths?
Bobby Slowik: It's always a balance. Again, that's at every position. We have some core beliefs and fundamentals that we really want to make sure we do. I'm sure Coach Hafley has talked about it. I believe in keeping the defense off balance, I believe in running the football, skewing as close to fifty-fifty on first, second down as you can. So there's core tenets that are always going to be there, and then everything beyond that, you really are working within your scheme to fit the guys you have. Some of that has to do with the quarterback. Some of that has to do with the running backs. Some of that has to do with the o-line, tight end, receivers. That's all the way across the board, so it's always a work in progress. I think I said last time I was up here, even in San Francisco, I was there for six years, and we ran the same scheme through all those years. I would say maybe the world doesn't notice, but in our mind, coach's perspective; there were enough nuances every year that made it different based on the people you had and kind of the part of their career they were in. It's always changing.
You mentioned in the past when you were in San Francisco how you would track teams after they played you to see how maybe banged up they were because of the physicality you guys brought to the game. How does the addition of Kadyn Proctor kind of help in that physicality? What do you see from him?
Bobby Slowik: Yeah, he's just an exciting guy to have. He's absolutely massive. He might be one of the biggest individuals I've ever seen in my life. His legs are bigger than me, you know? (laughter) But he moves like he's 290 or 300. He's a unique blend of size and speed and movement ability. He's got great feet, so it's really been fun just to even in two days, see him out working with the vets, see what he can do as far as movement work, see how he's kind of gelling with the other guys up there, because that's as much of o-line play as anything, cohesiveness and working together. You add someone like that to the room and I already think it's a really good room up front that you get excited about really all phases – run and pass game – they're critical in every phase.
You've got a bunch of additions on the offensive line, tight end, a quarterback that runs a sub-4.4. What excites you most about designing a run game around the pieces you have this year?
Bobby Slowik: There's a lot of different ways to attack people, I'd say that's the No. 1 thing. And the cool thing so far is, you watch the guys up front, they enjoy doing drills every day. Again, right now it's not a whole lot of scheme. It's a whole lot of fundamentals. It's a lot of technique. It's a lot of fitting on combinations. We're doing that every day we're out here, but there is no getting bored right now. I mean, they are all about it. They're all in it. They work their tails off. And then you go to the running backs, those guys are putting in work. Ollie (Gordon II) is out there working his tail off. J. Wright (Jaylen Wright) is out there working his tail off. Like guys are really, really getting after it. I think the other part that's been really fun in the run game has been the receivers. We've only just scratched the surface of the run game with the receivers, but they want to know it all. They want to make sure that they're involved. They want to make sure that they stand out when we are running the ball, they're not just pass game catchers. So I'd say the whole offense as a whole is really excited for what we can do.
What parts of Kadyn Proctor's game do you think could translate to guard if he settles there?
Bobby Slowik: Like I already mentioned, he's a really big human with great feet and good movement skills, and quite honestly, when you can do that, you could play anywhere up front. Now he played mainly left side in college, so we're going to keep him on the left side whether it's guard or tackle. That's the bigger transition more often than not, when you start flipping guys sides up front and they're not used to it, that's generally harder than like, tackle to guard situations. I'd say the only thing that changes is it's a hair faster at guard and there's a hair more space when you're out at tackle, and that's about the extent of the difference. He's having fun and he's really embracing where he's at right now and we'll see what that looks like. Really fast, big man.
How much conflict can the defense be put in when you have Malik Willis back there receiving the ball and then De'Von Achane is next to him? Just how much chaos can that create for a defense?
Bobby Slowik: I'd say anytime you have a quarterback who has the ability to run, it's not something that you are going to do down-in, down-out in the NFL; but the threat of it makes it 11 versus 11, as opposed to 11 on 10. I think that's what can get tough sometimes when you get a guy that maybe isn't as mobile at quarterback is, they have eleven guys and aside from throwing the ball, you're really playing with ten. So it just lets you equalize some advantageous situations. Outside of that, really the mobility these days shows up more in off-schedule situations than it does anything. So it's definitely a weapon and it's a threat and it's something you want a defense to think about, but I think no one in the NFL is coming out and just living in that world.
And your reaction to finding out you wouldn't have Jaylen Waddle in this year's offense but maybe can bring up some younger receivers?
Bobby Slowik: Having Jaylen Waddle here was awesome. I enjoyed working with him. He was great to have, but I'm really focused on who we have here now. I wish him the best. I think he's going to tear it up in Denver, but I'm really locked in on who's on our current roster.
You mentioned earlier at this point, it's not a bunch of scheme but a lot of focus on fundamentals and things like that. I'm curious, how do you guys as an offensive staff kind of measure what you have as far as strengths and weaknesses, evaluate where you are as an offense?
Bobby Slowik: I'd say some of that's done through the evaluation process. Particularly for young guys, for rookies, you watch so much film, you start to gain an understanding of, OK, what do we really like? Like, what's this guy elite at? What can we take advantage of? And then maybe what are some areas that we need to make sure we kind of shore up and he gets better at. And early on, you want to emphasize what he's really good at obviously. Outside of that, like the veterans that are here, that's really what this time of year is about – accentuating your strengths, shoring up your weaknesses, where there's a lot of times vets can take some big steps this time of year where you don't really know what it is you want to emphasize until you get closer into the season. Right now I'd say everyone's kind of just attacking all the fundamental work and making sure that the core fundamentals we believe in are at the very best and then we'll see where it takes us.
Given that with a high draft pick like Kadyn Proctor, are you guys at the process right now where you have identified, "OK, this is what he's really good at, this is what he can do really well for us, this is what we need to work on with him"?
Bobby Slowik: Yeah, definitely. There's things we're working on attacking, and there's things probably down the line really for all of them. Like it's on our mind, OK, we got to fix these. We got to shore these up, but it generally is like, OK, after we get you here to understand this is what we do and how we do it. And they're going to put a lot of time into what we do and how we do it, and as you keep working on that and working on that, you start to get to, OK, here's some things that showed up in college. We got to clean this up by the time we get to regular season.
I wanted to ask you about something that that Greg Dulcich said a couple months ago. He said everybody's kind of checked their ego at the door, young team and all. I don't know if they want to call it rebuilding, but I wanted to ask what that statement means to you, that checking your ego at the door, as somebody who's been here for the past couple of years and seeing what happened last season?
Bobby Slowik: I think that's really cool he said that. I actually didn't know he said that, but I think any time you want to get better, right – as a coach, you want to be the best version of yourself. As players, they want to be the best versions of themselves, and our job is to help each other do that. The only way you can do that is you got to be able to tell the truth. We got to be able to tell the truth to the players. They got to be able to tell the truth to us. It's a two-way street. We got to have real conversations. They've got to have real conversations with each other, and so far early on, I think that's been evident with this whole group. All anybody here cares about is growing themselves as much as they can, getting as good as they can as an individual. They don't care if it's positivity, they don't care if it's criticism; they want to use it to become better. And I think Greg's a great example of that. I mean, he wants a coaching point after everything he does from anybody, and he just wants it to be the truth. I would say that's what jumps out to me.
