Mike Sullivan’s presence on coaching staff a boon for Raiders quarterbacks

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Dec 7, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan reacts on the sidelines against the New England Patriots during the fourth quarter at Acrisure Stadium. New England won 21-18. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Raiders redundancy is apt at the quarterback position.

No, I’m not referring to having super veteran Kirk Cousins, No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, and another vet Aidan O’Connell as the top trio in the quarterback room. That’s quite important, don’t get me wrong.

It’s having Klint Kubiak as the head coach and primary offensive play caller and his trusted “fixer” Andrew Janocko as his offensive coordinator. Both served as as quarterback coaches in their respective careers and the initial thought was the experience shared between them both, a true QB coach wasn’t necessarily required.

Enter: Mike Sullivan.

The veteran quarterback guru was added to Kubiak’s staff and now, the Las Vegas Raiders have a three-headed monster to help develop, guide, and teach a reformed quarterbacks room. And Sullivan’s presence on top of Kubiak’s and Janocko’s is a boon for the Silver & Black.

Case-in-point: Cousins, who enters his 15th season in the NFL at 37 years old, is taking full advantage of the coaching staff resources available to him.

“And there’s so many resources in this building, and it’s exciting to go to work every day and have that many people,” Cousins began, “I mean, Mike Sullivan has been Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning. I mean, I can just go on and on asking, ”What did this guy do, what were his habits like, what drills did he like, how did he get ready, how did he handle the playoffs?” And I’ve got so many people who can help me.”

Sullivan’s attention to detail and dealing with duress are his calling card as a quarterback’s coach and that’s what the Raiders need to instill in their quarterbacks — particularly Mendoza. Sullivan brings over 20 years of NFL coaching experience, championship pedigree, proven track record with high-profile quarterbacks, alongside play-calling experience and pre-existing chemistry with the staff Kubiak assembled — all of which will be beneficial to his fellow coaches and, more importantly, the signal callers he’s in charge of.

#Raiders QB coach Mike Sullivan on his impressions of Fernando Mendoza: "He has a way of finding completion. Sometimes the footwork might not be right, or maybe his progression didn't start in the right spot, but he's done a good job of keeping his poise, not panicking and…

— Ryan McFadden (@ryanmcfadden_) June 2, 2026

Add assistant head coach Mike McCoy to the mix and Las Vegas has a solid group of offensive minds who have experienced the highs and lows of quarterback development.

The common thread amongst the group is prior working relationships. It’s common knowledge that’s quite true for Kubiak and Janocko who both come over from last season’s Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. Kubiak also worked with Sullivan with the Denver Broncos during the 2018 season as the former was a young offensive assistant while the latter served as the quarterbacks coach. Janocko and Sullivan linked up on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff (2012-13) where the younger coach was an offensive quality control assistant and the veteran was the offensive coordinator.

And McCoy and Kubiak were both on the Broncos staff in 2017 with the former serving as the offensive coordinator and latter being an offensive assistant.

Each brings unique skillsets to the table, but so far, this offseason in Silver & Black, the group has a unified message that’s singular in purpose and spearheaded by Kubiak.

“Yeah, I think it’s just about having one singular voice, and us being all together on it, whether it’s Klint, myself, Sully (Mike Sullivan), any of the guys that step in that position room, making sure that we have our wires together, that we’re making sure that we give one singular voice, whether it be to Kirk, whether it be to Aidan (O’Connell), or whether it be to Fernando (Mendoza), that when those guys hear that, they understand that there’s a clear message, and if it’s not clear, we get it fixed right away,” Janocko said.

Las Vegas has four of them on the roster: Cousins, Mendoza, O’Connell and undrafted rookie Jacob Clark. And it’s a room that Sullivan spoke about in an interview on the team’s official website.

“The four of them are all pros. Even though obviously Kirk (Cousins) has the most experience and has been in the most number of games, in terms of their approach, all of them are just focused on getting better,” Sullivan said. “They all just want, fundamentally, no detail to be to small for them to try and master and get better at. They are all trying to help each other out, but they are all open minded and receptive to all the details, all the fundamentals, all the instruction that we have for them to try to have that position be the best it can possibly be. To see that level of commitment and that professionalism, just very gratifying. Makes it a joy to come to work every day.”

Raiders quarterbacks are in good hands with Mike Sullivan as QB Coach pic.twitter.com/WWIsDyHtjZ

— Home Grown with David & Derek Carr (@HomeGrownTweet) May 23, 2026

Sullivan’s background as a West Point graduate, U.S. Army infantry platoon leader, and Airborne Ranger shapes his coaching philosophy as he takes core tenets from one into the his current role as an NFL coach. As mentioned above, attention to detail and dealing with duress are two. The others include: Cross-cultural leadership and teamwork, clear structure and task management, accountability, and adaptability — especially in crisis.

The quarterback position definitely fits the crisis category as more often than not, a signal caller is under duress gamedays trying to get the offense aligned and mitigating what the defense is doing to combat them. It’s a position where mental and physical fatigue can set in and linger and where ultimate poise is often required. That means being able to block out the chaotic noise, remain calm under pressure, and maintain discipline when plays break down. Think: Resolve and steadiness regardless of circumstances”.

“There’s so much discipline and structure and you learn early on that in order to be successful it takes collaboration,” Sullivan said of how his military background helped his coaching career. “It takes teamwork in different capacities. What are the ways in which you can be successful in terms of leadership? That’s really what the design of the school is. I served in the Army after graduation and was an infantry platoon leader and Airborne Ranger, all that fun stuff.

“You have a cross section of troops that are from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, ethnicities. And in the infantry particularly, it’s very physically, emotionally, mentally demanding, and everyone has to work together. You have to find a way to reach those guys so they realize they’re only going to be successful if they come together. I think having that as a background, it was really a natural transition into coaching.”

After all, the quarterback position is oft-labeled the most important to an offense and if the said signal caller is calm and collected, that permeates through the rest of the offense. It’s a trait that both Cousins and O’Connell have shown in their NFL starts and it’s something Mendoza exhibited during Indiana’s marvelous National Championship run this past season. And having Sullivan on hand to not only further instill but amplify that is a sound concept for Kubiak and his Raiders.

In fact, hearing Sullivan describe one of his former pupil’s Eli Manning, is a reminiscent of Mendoza’s makeup.

“From a quarterback perspective, I worked with Eli Manning all those years. He was a guy that was such a steady and consistent performer and never got caught up in the outside noise. Never got distracted,” Sullivan said. “This was a guy who was at his best when his best was needed. You’re going to walk into a quarterback meeting room and I remember taking extra time making sure all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed because he’s going to be on it. He was going to ask a question and I better know the answer.

“I think working with Ben Roethlisberger, just for one year in Pittsburgh, Ben was such a supreme competitor. The mental and physical toughness, the competitiveness he showed, that’s something that stayed with me.”

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