New Pittsburgh Steelers play caller Mike Sullivan has twice been an offensive coordinator in the NFL, with a stint leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-13 and one with the New York Giants from 2016-17. He was also a quarterbacks coach with the Giants in 2015, and during his time with New York, he made such an impression on QB Eli Manning, that Manning went to bat for Sullivan when he was out of the league during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. During an appearance on TSN’s SportsCenter, NFL insider Mike Garafolo said that Manning would lobby teams to hire Sullivan. Pittsburgh eventually did.
“Sullivan, who was previously Eli Manning’s quarterbacks coach, as well as a coordinator two times before this, is a guy that could spark this offense. And by the way, Manning would call teams when Sullivan was out of the league before Pittsburgh hired him after he was an offensive coordinator, said ‘You gotta hire this guy.’ The Steelers listened, they hired him, and now he’s in a position to show them that not only was he a good quarterback coaching hire, but a good coordinating hire.”
Garafolo also touched on the relationship between Steelers QB Kenny Pickett and Sullivan, calling their relationship “great,” and adding that he couldn’t say the same about the relationship between Pickett and Canada. That’s an interesting tidbit, and having someone Pickett’s closer with now running the show should hopefully elevate his play. He’s been dreadful to watch the last few weeks, and he hit a low with a 106-yard performance in Pittsburgh’s 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 11. It sounds as if Sullivan is equipped to get the most out of him.
The bad news in that Sullivan’s stint with the Giants, the team never put up over 30 or more points in a game with him as the offensive coordinator. The good news is that Manning, a player that Pickett has been compared to, thought so highly of him and his coaching ability that he went out of his way to call teams to hire Sullivan. The Giants were 11-5 in Sullivan’s first year running the show in 2016, with Manning throwing for 4,027 yards and 26 TDs, but the offense averaged just 19.4 points per game. That number dipped to 15.4 points per game in 2017, 31st in the league.
Now, there are a few key differences to note. One is that Sullivan is just going to be the team’s play caller while running backs coach Eddie Faulkner will serve in the role of offensive coordinator and handle a lot of the game-planning duties that come with the role. In addition, the Steelers’ offense has much better weapons than any other team Sullivan had previously been an offensive coordinator for, and it would track that better talent is going to lead to better results. Couple that with the pre-existing relationship between Sullivan and Pickett from Sullivan working as Pittsburgh’s quarterbacks coach over the last two years, and it sounds like the Steelers are going to be in good hands.
Things can’t get much worse from how they’ve been, particularly after the disaster last Sunday in Cleveland. I’m excited to see Sullivan and Faulkner get to work and see what they can implement to this offense. It does add a little confidence in Sullivan’s abilities that a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback in Manning thinks so highly of him.
