Read the full transcript from QB Malik Willis' media availability on August 8, 2026.

You've really seemed to take a step forward this week just with your playmaking ability. Just what has been behind that?

Malik Willis: Just continuing to work with the guys and get these reps. That's all this training camp is really about. It's about building confidence in the little things we got to do each play, and regardless of whether the defense wins or offense wins, are we doing things to execute?

I've seen you kind of develop a nice chemistry with Caleb Douglas, even sometimes with him being like a safety valve for you. Just what is it about him that makes him so dynamic?

Malik Willis: I think he's a great player. I wouldn't even say even a safety valve yet. I'm still trying to figure everybody out. Everybody's trying to figure me out. We're trying to figure this out together and obviously do whatever the play call that Bobby (Slowik) brings in to the best of our ability. He's been making nice grabs in the times where he's the option, where he's the read. So I'm excited for him. I think he's doing a great job getting open. I think he's attacking the mental side of it. It's been great.

Have you always been comfortable throwing on the move, or is that an area that you feel you've improved throughout your career?

Malik Willis: I feel like I just try to continue to work on everything, taking it one day, one play, one practice at a time and figuring out where I can keep getting better, and nobody's perfect so we always got stuff to get better at.

Is it harder for you to be accurate on the move or no?

Malik Willis: I don't think it's comparable. I think they're two different things. I try to do the best I can to get it to our guys regardless.

The touchdown you scrambled for, take us through what's happening on that play as you go through your progression and you sense the pressure coming, spin around and ultimately you got to get into the end zone?

Malik Willis: Yeah, first, second, third read were gloved. You continue – I try to get to my fourth read. Chop won inside late on AJ and just got outside and looked for our fourth read to move around, but it just so happened somebody took him, so I just ran it in. Works out like that sometimes. All you can do is be grateful.

Why was it important for you to get in front of the team and address the team? What do you hope your teammates learn from what you said?

Malik Willis: I just wanted to talk to the offense and just have a man-to-man conversation. Like we got to understand this is a business and we got to take what we do personal. We got to take pride in it, and we got to do it to the best of our ability, regardless if we're calling plays to beat the defense or not. We're not calling plays to beat the defense. We're calling plays that we want to use throughout the year, and we're trying to get better at those plays. And whether we win the down or not, are we doing everything that we can do to execute the play call? Are we doing our job on the o-line? Are we doing our job at the receiver? Are you at the right depth regardless if I have to check it down or it's a touchdown? Is everybody doing the right thing? That's what it's about, building confidence in those things. So when we get in those moments and we need them, we just revert to our training.

How long have you been comfortable taking a step like that? Getting up in front of everybody the way you did?

Malik Willis: It's just a conversation more than anything. I don't know if you need some super courage or anything else. These are the people I work with every day, that I go to war with. We're in the weight room. We've been together six months already, so it's just talking to the guys.

I've got a two-part question for you. No. 1, what percentage of your game would you say the run game is? 40 percent, 50 percent? And No. 2, will we ever see it before the season opener? Understanding that Haf wants you to stay in the pocket for part of training camp and then preseason, maybe you don't play that much, etc. So what percentage and will we see it before the opener fully integrated?

Malik Willis: No. 1, I wouldn't say a percentage. You try to just take what the defense gives you really and try to do the best to, like I said, execute the play. And whenever an opportunity arises to go and get a first down, you want to try to do that. The more first downs you stack, the closer you get to the end zone. And No. 2, I'm not sure. I don't think so. Not until you play real games, then you got to protect yourself and obviously play football. That's what we're here to do.

What advice did you get as a young player that really sat well with you, and what advice do you give young players now that that you will help them during this process?

Malik Willis: Stay confident regardless of the situation because you are here for a reason, obviously. There's only so many NFL football players and you're one of them, so you got to have that same mindset. Like the only thing that's different from the guy that's getting paid however much money and a rookie coming in is they've been in it a little longer. They're a little older, they've seen a little bit more stuff; but the physical ability, all the guys can play.

Yesterday Hafley talked about having an unscripted practice. What were you able to take away from that that differs from a typical scripted practice?

Malik Willis: It challenges the guys. They don't know what's coming, so obviously they can't study really hard on just a certain play or a certain scheme, but they got to be ready to run whatever it's called, just like a true game or a true scenario. Like we were going second down into third down pass and we didn't have the third down pass scripted; we had the second down play scripted, so they knew going in what we were going to try to run, and they just got to react to the situation like a true game. You don't know how many yards somebody's going to get on a run play or how many yards they're going to get on a pass play in second-and-long.

Some days I've noticed your shoes. Can you give us the story? Does somebody design them for you or what is the story in your shoes?

Malik Willis: They're just for the feet and cover them and whatnot. But they're some shoes, you know, they're cleats. That's always good. (laughter) But for real, for real Jordan Love, he put me on to, like, you can just get some cleats with anything on them and we would take them from, like, sneakers. So he had the off-white ones last year, and then I got a pair of those. We had those and then this year I picked a different pair of shoes and just put them on my normal cleat. It's a pair of Air Force 1s, they're silver with the sparkles like that and I just put them in our colors.