The Pittsburgh Steelers parted ways with senior offensive assistant Mike Sullivan earlier this offseason. They did not announce the news, nor did anybody report on it until we pointed it out. Since then, however, multiple outlets have corroborated it, one more charitably than the other. Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for example, reported the information on April 28.
During his latest chat session yesterday, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette provided a bit more detail about the Steelers and Mike Sullivan. He confirmed that he was in the final year of his contract, noting he helped with YAC, which we knew.
“Great guy and a good coach, but [Steelers OC Arthur] Smith wanted to bring in guys he was more familiar with”, Fittipaldo wrote of Mike Sullivan. He added, “Honestly, his contract was up months ago and the Steelers finally got around to removing him from the website”.
Coaching contracts expire between the end of the regular season and the start of the new league year. Last year, the Steelers announced Mike Sullivan moving to his senior offensive assistant role on Feb. 9. At the same time, they also announced the hirings of Zach Azzanni, Tom Arth, and Mateo Kambui.
The Steelers first hired Sullivan to serve as QB coach in 2021 after promoting Matt Canada to offensive coordinator. He remained in that role until last season, following his transition to his new role. In 2024, they brought in Arth as new OC Arthur Smith’s QB coach, prompting the reshuffling. During the 2023 season, Sullivan shared coordinating duties following the in-season firing of Canada. Having had previous coordinating experience, he was responsible for calling plays.
Presumably, if the Steelers were going to make an equivalent move to replace Sullivan, they would have already. But they only hire coaches to senior assistant roles under special circumstances, as in last year’s example. While they didn’t bring in a new senior assistant, they did hire a new quality control coach in Luke Smith.
While Fittipaldo revealed that Arthur Smith wanted to bring in his own guys, that was probably pretty self-explanatory after the Steelers hired a QB coach while Mike Sullivan was still on staff. Evidently, they didn’t feel they had a sufficient role for him, or perhaps he wanted to move on.
Sullivan, 58, is not working with any other organization since parting with the Steelers. His coaching history traces back to 1993, and he has worked in the NFL since 2002. A West Point graduate, he briefly served as director of recruiting for Army in 2020. He is best known for working with former New York Giants QB Eli Manning.
