Read the full transcript from WR Malik Washington's media availability on October 26, 2026.

One thing for you on Hafley. Obviously, it's a fine line to get players to respect you, maybe have a healthy fear that what he says is the way it's going to be and have players like you feel some affection for you as well. How has he navigated that in your mind?

Malik Washington: I think when you come into an atmosphere like ours, you have a lot of guys who are just hungry to be pros, hungry to do things the right way, hungry to have extensive careers and make their family proud. So I think already you have that piece of just the right guys in the room. And I think Hafley comes in, he's personable. He tells us the truth, very honest with us within team meetings, he shows us the film and you could see the football intelligence. I think for us young guys to see his football intelligence, how he goes about the game, how he goes about his everyday, it makes us want to lean in and listen and follow his direction.

He strikes us as approachable, is he like that for the guys?

Malik Washington: Yeah, 100%, I would think so. He makes an effort to make sure he talks to each and every one of us, so it's nice.

What was your vantage point during that locker room celebration? Were you in the thick of it as the water was getting sprayed?

Malik Washington: I was until I saw them gathering around with the bottles and I ran out as soon as they started doing the spray. (laughter) But that was really cool for us just to have that moment for those guys. Some of those guys, that's their first NFL win, obviously Haf and Sully together. So very cool moment that we'll remember for a long time.

What did you see from the offense yesterday? Malik Willis, Caleb Douglas, Ollie Gordon II, offensive line, Greg Dulcich, you, Chris Bell. Tell me what you saw? It looked pretty good.

Malik Washington: I would say what I'm proud of is we just made the plays that came to us. And when we had our opportunity, when our number was called, a lot of guys ended up stepping up. Whether it was in the run game, the pass game, Greg started us off pretty hot and stuff, so we just got moving and we made the plays that came to us.

How great was it to have Caleb Douglas back? I mean, coming off an injury with two TDs, just how special is it to have him back?

Malik Washington: I think any time we can get a guy who helps this team, I think it's awesome to have him back. I've really gotten a chance to get to know Caleb and stuff over the last few months, and I know how hard he works, so I'm very happy that he was able to experience that.

You mentioned Greg, the impact that the tight end can have on this offense, getting him more involved. What can that do for you?

Malik Washington: I think Greg's a great player. He can run, he can catch the ball, he can block, he can kind of do it all. Same for Caleb, I'm excited for both of those guys to get their opportunity to go out there and ball and shine and show what they're capable of.

How does this win help the team move forward? You have another divisional rival coming up just this Sunday and for the rest of the season. You guys are 1-0 after the bye, so that's great.

Malik Washington: I think for us it's somewhat of a confidence boost; I think we're going to operate business as usual, whether we won or lost. We're going to come in, we're going to work, we're going to see what details we need to clean up. But this is somewhat of a confidence boost to know like, hey, we can do this and we can keep pushing forward. So I'm excited to see us do it again this Sunday.

Two possessions I want to ask you about. The final possession of the first half where you guys get the touchdown go up 21-7 at halftime, and then your final offensive possession of the game where you get the kneel down and you convert. What's the significance of those two possessions?

Malik Washington: I think first of all, I learned this in college is winning the middle eight – the last little bit going into halftime and when you first come out. I think anytime you can win that middle eight, you give yourself a pretty good chance to win the game, and then just at the end, you got to finish. We leaned on our run game, we leaned on our o-line, and that's exactly what we did is finish.

Was there anything that Malik Willis had told the receivers he was going to do differently? We saw obvious improvement yesterday in terms of going through progressions, getting the ball out quicker. Was there anything he had told you guys to look for that was going to be different yesterday?

Malik Washington: I wouldn't say – not necessarily. I mean, it was just us telling him and him telling us, let's just play our game. Let's all be ourselves. Let's do what we do day-in and day-out and let's go show it on Sunday.

Was it significant that you guys had a lead? Did you know it was your first lead of the season after that first possession and then throughout the game, is it a different feeling with the lead?

Malik Washington: I mean, it's hard not to know. Everybody's telling us that we've never had a lead and stuff, but I mean it's exciting to go out there and start with some momentum. Get the ball down and go score, then build on those scores and let that carry throughout the game. So that's really good for our momentum and really good for the game.

Hafley mentioned how Malik Willis very decisive with his decision-making throws. Do you feel that as a receiver like that, that moment when I'm getting open, the ball's there. Do you feel that decisiveness?

Malik Washington: Yeah, I think you can kind of tell because you kind of get a feel for the game, especially once you play for so long, when is the ball supposed to be there and when is the right time to get open and stuff like that. So yeah, you feel some of that decisiveness. Of course we got – I think we left a lot of stuff out there as well, so I think we're going to go and clean it up. And we're going to continue to get better this week so that we can put out more on Sunday.

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, how significant is health? Kyle Louis comes back. Caleb Douglas comes back. I don't think you had any significant injuries yesterday. Even Dante Trader and JuJu who went in the tent came back. Full complement of players, what kind of difference does that make?

Malik Washington: I think the healthiest team, especially as you go through the season – the NFL season is 17 games – the healthiest team usually wins at the end of the day once we get down the stretch. So I think us keeping our guys healthy, us being ready to go and having our full force, our full team that we went through camp with and we started the season with, to also end the season with those guys is huge.