Read the full transcript from WR Malik Washington's postgame media availability on September 21, 2026.
Talk to us about the mentality in the locker room now. I know it's only been two games and there's still 15 to go. Are players pretty upbeat right now?
Malik Washington: I think you kind of almost mentioned it there. We have 15 more games to go, there's only been two games. So I think the whole locker room as a collective is like, let's just keep going. Let's keep pushing forward. Let's learn from our mistakes. Let's see what we put on tape on Sundays and let's grow from it.
You mentioned what you put on tape, what are the encouraging things that you see? I know you guys yesterday, particularly the first half, you were getting down there just kind of finish drives. What are some of the things that lead you to believe that things move in the right direction?
Malik Washington: I think our offense did a wonderful job of just maintaining the ball, keeping the ball, pushing past and getting down the field. I think we mentioned San Francisco only had two drives in the first half. So us just keeping the ball and continuously pushing down the field. We got a lot of good things going in the run game, some good things in the pass game that we'll just continue to clean up. But I think on the offensive side of the ball, we're just continuously pushing. We just got to finish.
We see the way you guys did run in the first half, controlled the clock. Does this team see, does this offense see a formula for how this team can win games?
Malik Washington: I think our guys up front, we hone in on those guys, we lean on those guys to do their job and be right. They're kind of the heartbeat of our offense. Obviously, De'Von's a great player we lean on him as well. And as that continues to get going, the pass game will get going and we'll just feed off of each other. But I think that right there up front, just running the ball is going to be us.
What worked well on that scramble drill play that you caught?
Malik Washington: I think that's 2 (Malik Willis) making a great play, getting out of trouble, finding a way out of there, peeling out to the left. I'm kind of just communicating with him. We've practiced scramble drill 100 times so I mean that's just us connecting there. He just made a great play.
That communication with him, you're saying that's like from experiencing it with him, gaining chemistry so that it's kind of like natural, almost like an alley-oop, like the eye contact?
Malik Washington: I think, like I said, we've practiced it and we've been out in situations where we had scramble drill and some we didn't complete and we learned from them and stuff like that. So for that to come alive on a game time situation is really cool.
What is the best way for you to look at the next opponent? Is it Kansas City that's been to three of the last four Super Bowls or is it just another NFL team, faceless opponent?
Malik Washington: Faceless opponent for sure. I think right now, especially on our journey, we need to focus on ourselves. We need to focus on cleaning up what we did from the last game, getting better at each facet of our game, and everybody just doing their one-eleventh.
What do you think about getting back into Hard Rock Stadium for a home opener?
Malik Washington: I hope we got everybody there, everybody's ready to go. Fans going and we'll be going as well.
