Raiders to Interview Steelers QB Coach Mike Sullivan for OC Opening

The Las Vegas Raiders will interview Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan for their vacant offensive coordinator position, according to a report by Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.

Sullivan has been the Steelers’ quarterbacks coach since 2021, and was promoted in-season to also become the team’s primary play-caller after the firing of offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said last week that Sullivan, and interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner, will not be considered a candidate to replace Canada, and that the Steelers are looking exclusively at external options at this point.

“I’m looking at outside candidates and lining up the pecking order there,” Tomlin said. “I am appreciative of their efforts in terms of what they did for us down the stretch. But I’m looking for outside candidates at this juncture.”

The team had hired each of its two previous offensive coordinators internally. 

But after averaging 16.9 points per game with Canada as the OC, the Steelers averaged 19.4 points per game in eight games with Sullivan and Faulkner pulling the strings.

A 56-year-old West Point grad, Sullivan has been an NFL offensive coordinator twice before, with the New York Giants from 2016-17 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-13.

He spent most of his NFL career with the Giants, starting there as wide receivers coach and also coaching quarterbacks in his first stint from 2004-11. After leaving to take the Tampa Bay job, he returned to New York, first as quarterbacks coach before being promoted to OC. He won two Super Bowls with the Giants, XLII and XLVI.

After he was fired as Giants offensive coordinator in 2017, he spent one year as the Denver Broncos quarterbacks coach, then a year out of football and another back at Army as the recruiting coordinator, before the Steelers hired him in 2021.

With the team hiring a new offensive coordinator, Sullivan is not expected to return to his job as Steelers quarterbacks coach, though no official announcement has been made.

The Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels and offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi on Oct. 31. Interim head coach Antonio Pierce has taken over full-time, and is now looking for a replacement to Lombardi. 

Pierce announced that interim offensive coordinator Bo Hardegree will not return. The Raiders are also interviewing Los Angeles Rams quarterbacks coach Zac Robinson, who is also on the Steelers’ radar, as well as former Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and former Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.