Read the full transcript from OC Bobby Slowik's media availability on October 8, 2026.

There was some chatter from fans about the third down play to Bell, and Malik not seeing Kevin Coleman. He was asked about it yesterday. Should he have seen Coleman on that play and thrown to him instead?

Bobby Slowik: I mean, that play is a critical moment of the game, right? We're expecting cover zero. We got cover zero. We put a play in specifically for cover zero. We got exactly what we want. We got an all-out blitz. We have two posts on the left, we have a stick on the right. And the way we equip our quarterback in this system is we want to give them options. Like if our pocket's not good, if maybe we don't pick things up the way we want, we have an outlet to the right on a stick that we can throw and is always available to him to throw. But like the way we coach and especially when you get a cover zero team, like you want to be aggressive against cover zero and you have two posts on the play. And I think Malik's mindset on that was I'm going to be aggressive. And honestly, it was a ball that is a 50-50 ball that I would expect and I think our offense would expect we come down with 100 times out of 100. And I think Chris Bell would say the same thing. So I think it's easy after the fact for everybody to go through like, well, could we have done this? Could we have done that? But really, I think ultimately the play came down – in football, it's so funny. It's a trickle down to everything, right? We put in a special protection to pick up an all-out blitz against the defense is probably the best in the NFL doing all-out blitzes. We pick it all up, but we're a hair off on when the on the balls being snapped like a hair early. Now Will's a little out of position. He picks off AJ. Will gets edged. AJ gets edged. Now the pocket's not clean. Now it's not – so it's like all these things add together on it, which is why the detail of everything we do right now with our team is so important all the way across the board.

So that's not viewed as a negative play for him when you go back and look at the tape.

Bobby Slowik: No.

And there was one other play where obviously Coleman in the corner of the end zone. It was a very narrow window for him to get the ball. Looked like Malik, at least from the TV copy, was streaking open late in that play. I don't know if you saw that. Was there an opportunity to go to Malik there? And in general, I guess, has Malik Willis been not seeing open receivers or has that not been an issue?

Bobby Slowik: I think Malik Willis is doing just fine. I think you have a quarterback that excels in off schedule and athleticism, and I think he's shown that through the course of four games. I think he's still getting used to the system that we're running when we're talking about playing in the pocket. We've gotten better at getting rid of the ball fast. But it's something he's still always going to continue to work on as we go through the season. Because again, this is a new scheme for him. I think anytime you sit there and even as a coach, you use a clicker and you rewind to play six times and you start to question the decision of somebody that I think is doing the hardest thing in the world in sports, in quarterback, I think you're getting into a really dangerous game. And what I ask of him is we stick to what it is we teach. We go through the process of what it is we teach and then whatever you decide to do, you do it aggressive and you do it convicted. And if you do that, we're going to be happy with what you decide. You're too talented not to go make really good plays. So I think Malik is taking steps in that direction every day. Every day I see him in practice getting better. Every game I think he's taking steps to get better as well.

How did you see the running backs respond following Achane's injury?

Bobby Slowik: Yeah, I thought they both stepped up. It was one of those games where when Ollie was in, a lot of the runs he had were the right runs and he took advantage of them, and he made some big plays. He made a big play on 3rd down to get us down in the red area and then he obviously scored and had some big runs on the way. And I really think Jaylen Wright actually ran pretty well too. It was like he had the opposite. It was the other side of the coin. He had some really tough run looks and it works out sometimes that way when you have multiple backs that are kind of doing it by committee. Sometimes a guy just gets the rough share and somebody gets the good share. But I still thought Jaylen Wright took some runs that were maybe three, four-yard gains and he was able to run for 5, 6, 7. One he was able to run for eight, keep us on schedule. And then he had the one on 3rd and two where I mean, there's just not much you can do when we execute it that way. So I thought both of them, really like as far as carrying the ball, I thought they stepped up and I was equally proud of Ollie in the third down stuff. Protections was something that he's been doing, but we really put a lot on his plate on 3rd down this past game. Like this is a really hard defense as far as protections go in situational football. And I thought our protection throughout the game is a credit to the o-line and to the backs. Like I thought our protection was really good against a tough defense to have good protection against. So I was really pleased with both of them.

Does Hafley prefer to ride the hot hand or stay committed to the committee? Or is that better question for him?

Bobby Slowik: It's probably a better question for him tomorrow. I would say my feeling on it is – I think eventually through every game, you wind up getting a feel for the guys. And if one guy maybe is hotter than the other, you're going to have him out there more. You're still going to wind up splitting time. Especially here in Miami, like they're going to get tired, you know? Early in the game, I'd probably lean more towards like, let's stick with the plan and let's see how this plays out because it could just be a one-two run thing that's blocked really well, you know? So I think there's some feel there and ultimately that's Coach Hafley's decision. So that's probably a good one for him.

You said that it was the right run for Ollie a lot of the times. Are you referring to like his decision making on that? What does that reference to?

Bobby Slowik: It could reference a lot of things. I'd say the first thing it always references is the play call, that I actually have a decent play call. And then secondly, how we block it. Did we block this well? Are we blocking it the way we envisioned it being blocked? Is the window that we want to hit the anticipated window or is it going to have to make something happen that maybe we didn't anticipate happening? Like all those things kind of together can make a running back have a really good day or a really tough long day. So there's a lot that goes into it, like everything in football, there's 11 guys on the field and you need all 11 to roll.

Four games into the season, you guys have a very diverse run scheme with multiple different types of running plays. Do you anticipate that continuing? Is that your goal to continue that? Or as the season goes on, do you try to hone in on the things that you do especially well and try to maybe narrow it down to more of that? How do you balance being diverse in the running game, but also maybe sticking to what you do best?

Bobby Slowik: I think that's something we're all kind of figuring out right now, all the way across the offense. I think every week you go into it like, how do I help this individual all the way across the board at every position? And then once you go beyond the individual, how do I help our unit succeed? And you evaluate that always starting as a coordinator and play caller and then you go as coaches and then you go to players. But I think right now we're kind of in the boat like, all right, where's the sweet spot for us? Are we doing too much where we got to cut stuff back? Are we not doing enough and we have to add more to help these guys get more advantageous positions? I think it's constantly like fluctuating. And then you add in, well, what are we going against? Is this something we're going to be able to ID and know or is this way complex and there's a lot of pieces? So it's like constantly changing. I would say overall, my mentality in the run game is I want to make the simple look complex. I think from our perspective right now, we probably don't do as much as people would think we do, which in that case, I'm doing my job. But if we give the illusion of complexity, then I think we're in a good spot.

And sticking to Ollie, we have seen what he can do on the field, but also we've gotten to know him over the past few weeks. And we know that he has such a charismatic personality, right? So when his number gets called after what happened with Achane, what does it mean to have a guy that not only can be explosive on the field, but also in the locker room? Just trying to become that leader, what does that bring to the room and to the offense in general?

Bobby Slowik: He's got energy. He's got a lot of juice every day, all the time. It's a lot of fun. Like when you have someone that's like that day in, day out on the practice field, in the locker room, in the meeting rooms, when you're in games, and you're trying to overcome something, you can rely on his energy to be there. When you're in a game and something good happens, you can rely on his energy to keep it going. So that part of it's just really fun. It's a joy to be around. You also know when Ollie maybe isn't having Ollie's best day, you know what I mean? Because his energy level is so consistent. As soon as you see a little dip, you're like, "whoa, man, like what's going on, man?" And then boom, he's back. So I've had fun seeing him last year as a rookie, see what he went through, what he battled through, just the general rookie process to where he is now, continuing to grow and going into this year, he wasn't getting a whole lot of reps through camp and preseason and to see him be mature and handle it the right way and really still work his tail off and then to have a game like he had, I'm just really happy for him.

What would be a key against Dexter Lawrence?

Bobby Slowik: Dexter Lawrence is a difficult man to block, right? I swear to you, I feel like sometimes as a nose he'll align and I think he occupies two gaps. I mean, he's just huge. So I would say for us, I think one thing that helps us is we can count on Brewer an awful lot. Like I'm not ever saying like our game plan is going in Brewer, you got Dexter one-on-one all game, man, you know what I mean? Like we wouldn't do that. But obviously Brewer is one of our best players. So to be able to have one of our best players near one of their best players is helpful for us. But he's just tough because he impacts a run game a great deal. They got a really good run defense. I think they're ranked like top five or something like that. And then obviously, he's a really good pass rusher. Like he's a disruptor on the interior as a pass rusher. And that's normally a three technique spot. And when it comes from the shade, that gets way harder to help and handle in protections than people realize, because it's really rare. So that for us, that's a huge challenge. Like we're going to have some stuff in the run game where we know OK, how can we just help in protections? I think it's going to be really big. I mean, they're good all the way across the front in pass rush. They blitz less I think than anyone else in the NFL. They're still somewhere, third in sacks or something like that. Like their d-line is good. It's a good challenge for us up front. It's a good challenge for our O-line. It's a good challenge for Brewer, because that's who he's going to be lined up against most of the game.

How important is it for you with Achane gone to maintain the identity of wanting to run the football and to see it come to fruition with Ollie's 100-yard game?

Bobby Slowik: It's still every time I just think about losing De'Von, my heart hurts for him because I think everybody was just so fired up and happy with where he was as a player and especially where he was going as a leader and how he was helping our whole unit. I would say that what made him – obviously, he's got home run abilities, a heck of a running back, but his skills that not a lot of other backs in the league have is his receiving ability. And I think we felt that through the first three weeks. And I would say, I think his receiving ability is special. Outside of that, I don't really think our identity has changed. Like we came into this wanting to be a tough, physical team that played with high effort. Like that's who we want to be. That's what we want to be every day, every game. And that identity isn't going to change because De'Von's not here. Like we have Jaylen Wright and Ollie here and Carlos and Quez here because that's the identity we want to be. So we have people here that we know can continue that identity. So that part of it isn't going to be any different. The first half was tough sledding in the run game, really all the way around the board, I would say. On offense, it was not a good first half. I was really pleased with how guys responded in the second half and in the run game in particular. I thought in the second half we ran the ball really, really well.