Pittsburgh Steelers interim play caller and QB coach Mike Sullivan is taking an interview with the Las Vegas Raiders, per a report from NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on X on Wednesday morning.
Sullivan has been the QB coach in Pittsburgh since the 2021 season, working one season with Ben Roethlisberger, and he has been the only QB coach that Kenny Pickett has had in the NFL. Sullivan’s role was expanded in the middle for the 2023 season after offensive coordinator Matt Canada was fired following a Week 11 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Sullivan took over the play-calling duties as RB coach Eddie Faulkner took over the interim offensive coordinator role, the latter responsible for putting together the game plan and running the offensive meetings.
Including the Steelers, Sullivan has a long list of NFL experience. He has been a quarterbacks coach with the Denver Broncos and New York Giants and served as an offensive coordinator with the Giants from 2016-17 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-13. He won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants, coaching Eli Manning and the quarterback room in what was one of Manning’s best statistical seasons of his career. All told, he has been coaching in the NFL since 2002 in various roles. It was that experience that convinced head coach Mike Tomlin to hand over the play-calling duties to Sullivan as he had prior experience calling plays in the NFL.
With Tomlin stating in his end-of-season press conference that the Steelers will be looking outside the organization for their next offensive coordinator, Sullivan is understandably looking elsewhere for his next opportunity. Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated that Sullivan would likely not be retained due to the potential awkwardness that could come with an external hire and having the previous play caller looking over his shoulder.
So now, on top of having a new offensive coordinator for the first time in his career, Pickett will also likely have a new quarterbacks coach. It will be a lot of change for the young quarterback to manage while the organization is still weighing whether he is its franchise quarterback of the future.
Under Sullivan’s play calling in the second half of the 2023 season, the Steelers saw an uptick in production that helped propel them into the playoffs. Prior to the coordinator change, the Steelers were averaging 16.6 points and 280.1 yards per game. After the change, over the final seven games of the regular season, the Steelers averaged 19.7 points and 338.9 yards of total offense per game.
Sullivan is interviewing to be part of new head coach Antonio Pierce’s coaching staff. Pierce became the interim head coach after the Raiders fired Josh McDaniels midseason and was named head coach in Vegas late last week. The two are familiar with each other from their time together in New York. Pierce was a player at the time while Sullivan was there coaching.
