mike sullivan
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New Las Vegas Raiders QB coach Mike Sullivan.
When the Las Vegas Raiders officially announced Klint Kubiak’s coaching staff, the quarterbacks coach position was notably vacant. Since Kubiak had such a late start to fill up his staff, he didn’t get a chance to hire any of the top candidates.
It looked like he’d rather keep the job vacant than hire somebody he wasn’t comfortable with. However, he was able to find somebody with years of experience. According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Raiders are hiring Mike Sullivan to be their quarterbacks coach.
Sullivan has been coaching at the NFL level since 2002. He won two Super Bowls as an assistant for the New York Giants. He was the team’s quarterbacks coach in 2011 for one of those Super Bowl wins.
He also has experience as an offensive coordinator. He held the role with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Giants in the past. The last time he was a quarterbacks coach was for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2021 to 2023. Most recently, he was going to be a senior offensive assistant for Rutgers, but has decided to go to the Raiders instead.
He wasn’t in the NFL in 2025, and the last job he had was as a senior offensive assistant for the Steelers in 2024.
Sullivan Has Important Job
The Raiders’ decision to hire Sullivan as the quarterbacks coach is not a small one. He’s now going to be tasked with coaching up likely No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza.
It’s a good sign that the Raiders landed on a quarterback coach, as Mendoza is going to need to learn a lot as a rookie. Sullivan has a ton of experience coaching quarterbacks, so he’s a logical coach for the team to hire.
Mel Kiper Jr. Defends Mendoza
There’s been some talk recently that Alabama’s Ty Simpson could be a better prospect than Mendoza. This is somewhat out of left field, as Mendoza was obviously the better quarterback during the college football season.
Amid the questions about Mendoza, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. defended the Heisman Trophy winner.
“Fernando Mendoza’s at No. 1 on my board. Ty Simpson’s No. 25,” Kiper said on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “You say, ‘Why?’ Fernando Mendoza is nearly four inches taller than Ty Simpson and 25 pounds heavier. 35 starts compared to 15, which is a risky, dangerous number for Ty. (He has a) 72% completion percentage to 64%. Seven rushing touchdowns to two. The fact that he had five fumbles over a seven-game period, Ty Simpson. Five fumbles lost, six total for the year.
“Ty Simpson, only one year as a starter. Fernando Mendoza started at Cal. He was at 69% in 2024, but he was sacked a lot. He cut that sack total down dramatically by going back and playing another year in college and moving on to Indiana. I will say for Ty, he didn’t have the offensive line that Mendoza had, didn’t have the receivers catching the ball on a regular basis. Didn’t have two excellent running backs as well, to balance things out. So, Fernando Mendoza had some advantages there. But overall, all the check marks that you go across the board go to Mendoza over Simpson.”