Read the full transcript from OC Bobby Slowik's media availability on November 12, 2026.

I wanted to ask you about your possession in the second quarter. I think your first possession, you start off at the six-yard line. And you get the Dulcich pass, the Ollie Gordon II run, the Douglas completion, but then it's the hold on Kacmarek to bring back the 51-yarder. It looked like Kaytron Allen and Malik got their feet mixed up and then maybe Wayne got blocked into Cass. Now it's second-and-20, then it's third-and-18. You punt on fourth-and-18. Tell me about the ebbs and flows of that drive because you start off at the six and you're really going, and then you get set back. How do you feel about that possession?

Bobby Slowik: It was pretty miserable. Anytime you have multiple penalties like that, it's hard enough. And then when one of the penalties is something that eliminates what probably was on our side, the biggest play of the game, that's really tough. That's tough to overcome. That's tough to deal with. And then you add on to that the amount of times that happened to us in that game. You just can't beat really good teams like that. It's hard to beat any team like that. And then you add in that it's a really good team, it's the Detroit Lions. It's going to make for a hard day. But just specifically within that possession, I think that's part of football. It doesn't always necessarily have to be penalties. Sometimes you can – when we started that play with a run that we thought should have got more than it did. So I mean, you could say it's like, shoot, what now? But then next thing you know we have a first down and then explosive and then we're moving the ball pretty well. And then whether it's a penalty or just a sack or a run play that goes awry, you can wind up behind the chains really fast in the league and you got to be able to overcome stuff like that. Everyone's too good. You can't keep overcoming things. You got to stay on schedule. And you got to take advantage of your opportunities, and we didn't do a good enough job of that last game.

And along those lines, you had shared with us a few weeks ago that you thought you guys were one of the top teams in the league at penalties across the 50. I had you guys with 11 penalties, 8 offensives, 6 on the other side of the 50. I mean, frustrating? Does it piss you off or is it just part of the game?

Bobby Slowik: I mean, we're all competitors, right? We want to win. Really badly. We want to win. And anything that gets in the way that is going to frustrate everybody that's in this building, you know? I thought we had done a really good job since the bye week of starting to clean that up. I don't really think the across the 50 thing recently has been on our mind. We just know we've been able to put ourselves in position to go score and we've been doing a good job of that recently until the last game. And the penalties kind of crept up and re-emerged and I don't think a lot of us were expecting that to happen. But really the coaching point from my perspective for everybody is once you commit a foul on offense, like the play's over. And I don't think guys always understand that in the moment because we preach so much the effort, the strain, the physicality we're going to play with. But like there's a time and a place where you just got to understand if you go too far, you've ruined everybody's play and the play's done. And that's been a big thing for us this week is we got to get back to playing clean football if we want to win games.

How much would you say the play calling changes for you with Kyle McCord in?

Bobby Slowik: I mean, it's kind of the same as – we've had these discussions as we've gone through the year. We lost De'Von. I know we had the same conversation about, how's the run game change? Everybody that's in this building is in this building because we think they can run our offense and they can run our offense really well. I think there's things that make Malik different and special, like he can use his legs and he's got legit speed that no offense to Kyle, but Kyle doesn't have 23 miles an hour on the GPS in his body. So that's going to change how he approaches the game. But there's things we do in the pass game and the run game that he can handle and he likes doing and he excels at. So it's not going to change all that much. Probably just going to be things that are less running down the field.

How different is it when you have your QB2 train the whole week, first team reps, versus having to make that type of decision on game day? Just like how much of an advantage he said if you want to call it that way for Kyle to be able to train with the first team throughout the whole week?

Bobby Slowik: I've always thought it was really – that particular question – is interesting because I've been on both sides of it. I've been on the offensive side and the defensive side and offensively it's a huge deal. It's massive because your one is going to get all the reps during the course of the week. So Malik has been getting all the reps as we've led into games. And if anything would have happened where Kyle would have had to gone in there, he's really going in strictly off mental reps. So this week, like he's way more confident and comfortable as anybody would be of being able to stack a rapport with the receivers, with the tight ends, with the backs, make sure he feels good about the actions. Some things we have where he has to control the line of scrimmage with the play call and how just decisive he could be in what we're doing. Having been on defense, it's different when you're preparing for somebody different as opposed to when all of a sudden they roll in the game and you're like, whoa, we didn't prep for that. So I think it's kind of interesting both ways. But I'm really excited for Kyle. I know he feels good about what we're doing right now. I know he's really confident and he's excited for his opportunity.

How much do you have to worry about the nerves of a guy who's going to be starting his first legitimate NFL game.

Bobby Slowik: I don't think it's ever something you can just say doesn't exist. I think that'd be foolish of anybody. I would say, Kyle's played a lot of college football, which I do think matters. He's played a lot of big college football games. But at the end of the day, you got to go play and see what it looks like. We'll just be in constant communication on where he's at, what he's thinking, what he looks like. As coaches, we'll always be talking about it as we're going through the game, what we think it looks like from our vantage point and what we can do to help and just make sure that we're moving forward and we're doing stuff that he feels good about throughout the game.

Were you surprised when you learned that Malik would require the IR stint?

Bobby Slowik: I would say I think during the course of the game, we could see and most everybody could see that he was fighting it. He was laboring. It was not an easy game for him to get through. I got a lot of respect for him. I mean, he really fought. He wanted to stay in. He wanted to fight. He wanted to compete. He moved the chains on a big third down that we wound up getting a holding call on, but I thought it was really a big play by him as an individual. So I wouldn't say it completely catches you off guard. I just think it always is hard when you learn you're losing somebody for multiple weeks, and I just feel for him. I know he's been putting a lot of work in. He's been trying really hard. He's been fighting through stuff, and he keeps fighting and he keeps fighting and he keeps fighting. So hopefully he's able to really get right over these next – however long it is – four weeks, five weeks, whatever it is. And when he comes back, he's ready to roll.

Back after you guys traded for Kyle, Sully specifically said that Kyle's a guy that can come in and win us a few games. What have you seen in the last few months that really proves that?

Bobby Slowik: Just the way he's been able to come in and command everything. Like he goes out there and we haven't missed a beat. As far as the urgency we have, the operation we have, I mean, we motion a good amount. He's owned that. He's owned the concepts. He's owned where we're going with the ball. He's been great in the room when we have conversations or when Malik and him are talking about different things and how to approach different concepts. So I think that more than anything, just the back and forth that you hear in the meeting room, and the banter is usually where you get a lot of the football stuff. He's a pretty quiet guy, unless you really start to pull it out of him. And when you pull it out of him, he's sharp, now. I mean, he's on it. It's been pretty cool actually from my situation of not having any experience with him in camp. Usually you at least get somebody somewhere along the lines in camp where you have a lot of banked reps with him. I mean, really him and Brady just showed up Week 1 and they're learning game plan stuff from the start, so that's really hard to do. And I think both of them have done a great job owning that, embracing that and being a back and forth for Malik and Malik vice versa. Like Malik's been, he's been awesome this week. He's really been helping both those guys get locked in. He's been in that situation before in Green Bay. He knows what it's like for them. So it's been a cool experience to just see all three of them kind of work together through this.

Despite missing camp with this team, was he at a more advanced starting point at Green Bay where it's a similar offense?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I think anytime you're coming from somewhere that remotely resembles what you're doing compared to if we're getting a guy straight out of college on a spread offense, that's not exactly getting married to what we're doing. That's a long way to go as far as what you need to know mentally. So anything that can help bridge the gap is always helpful. Patullo's here, that helps a lot. Like what they ran in Philly isn't necessarily apples to apples to here, but you could still kind of put it in buckets and I think that's helped them, just being able to have conversations with him. So I think we're in a good spot. I think he's in a good spot. He's been made it very clear to me, does not want me to hold anything back and he's excited to roll.

In talking to backup quarterbacks that have come here from other places, Tim Boyle, Snoop Huntley, some of those guys. They've said two things that are different here are how fast you guys want them to get the ball out of their hands and the footwork. That was previous. Is that still true here and how has Kyle adjusted?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I'd say like there's parts of that are true. Like we're a rhythm passing game. And anytime you're a rhythm passing game, you really want things out on time, which you could play in some systems around the NFL that aren't like that. There's not as many anymore. I think a lot of people are going that way, but they're still out there. By the same token, like you're going to make sure your offense fits your personnel. So having been here last year, we don't have Waddle and Tyreek and Tua out there, you know what I mean? Where you can really throw early and that could be at a premium, like we're a different offense with different players. So rhythm matters and finding a way to play on time and what we want to do matters. And he knows that and he's embraced that.

At what point do you have a conversation with a quarterback like Kyle and go over the, what do you like? I like this. I don't like this. I feel comfortable with this. This is kind of my favorite play that you run. When do you have that conversation?

Bobby Slowik: I mean, honestly, like as soon as you know he's going to play, you start having those conversations. He's been awesome. He's been very – we've had back and forth. He's been very upfront and clear on a lot of that stuff. And he's really kind of right now, he's like, hey, let's let it rip. And then we'll probably wind up revisiting the conversation closer to like Friday or Saturday. And if there's something he's like, I'm not sure about this one, I mean, we're going to make sure he's confident in what we're out there doing. But so far, he's been knocking it out of the park in practice. So he's doing do a good job.

Can you talk about the shock of not having Aaron Brewer in there as you find out he's in concussion protocol? Maybe you have to go to Andrew Meyer.

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I mean, if it winds up being Meyer, we'd be excited for his opportunity. I was here last year when he had to play against Tampa Bay, and that's a tough challenge. Vita Vea, that's not easy. And I thought he did really well in that game. Obviously, seeing him last year, seeing what he did in camp, I thought he did a good job in camp. I thought he had a pretty good preseason. He makes it really easy, like if he has to go where you don't really have to change much of anything schematically. He can go play and try to do the same things that Brewer does. And then I think the other just added bonus that is rare as if that were to happen, him and Kyle have been getting all the snaps together, you know what I mean? So it's one less thing to worry about, quarterback-center exchange.

With the young quarterback obviously making his first start and with Chris Bell's status uncertain. Is this a week maybe you'll lean on an experienced guy like Tolbert, who obviously has played the most of anyone you have in the room? Is that a strong consideration this week if Chris can't play?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I mean, I'd say Tolbert's been doing really well for us. I know he hasn't been up every game and he's been working his tail off in practice. He had a really good week of practice last week. He's been reliable. He knows what he's doing. He can play multiple spots. So anytime you have somebody like that, to be able to have to put him in and fill wherever you need to fill, that's really valuable to have, and especially when you got a quarterback making his first start, you got young guys around him. I think the fastest way to slow a young quarterback down is questions in the huddle. Like I don't think people realize how many times people can ask questions in a huddle and they can completely derail everything. And when you got veteran guys out there, guys that know what they're doing, that eliminates that kind of step. As a matter of fact, they can help get other people aligned if needed. So I think JT is one of those guys. I think he's been doing a great job. I really think the whole room's been doing a good job. Been really pleased with the receiver room in general between the triplets, the three rookies. I think J-Wayne's been doing a good job, and I've been really pleased with the guys we got on practice squad. So we'll see what happens, but I'm excited for whoever winds up getting their opportunity.