With Antonio Pierce now officially the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, he must work to fill out the rest of his coaching staff. Perhaps no position is more important under Pierce than the offensive coordinator position.
Pierce is a defensive-minded coach as a former NFL linebacker so that will be where his main focus lies. Whoever is hired as offensive coordinator will surely be calling plays, and the Raiders have already interviewed a handful of candidates, and now another one is in line.
According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, the Raiders will interview Pittsburgh Steelers QB coach Mike Sullivan for the offensive coordinator position:
The #Raiders will interview #Steelers QB coach Mike Sullivan for their offensive coordinator job, sources say. Sullivan, who called plays this season after Matt Canada was fired, was an assistant on Tom Coughlin’s #Giants staff while Antonio Pierce captained the defense.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 24, 2024
Sullivan is an interesting possibility, and he certainly showed what he is capable of this past season. He took over playcalling duties for the Steelers after the team fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada and the offense immediately woke up under his reign despite major questions at quarterback and cycling through three different players at the position.
Sullivan also has ties with Tom Coughlin who is helping Pierce in filling out his staff. Sullivan had two stints working under Coughlin with the New York Giants and also served as offensive coordinator under the man who took over once Coughlin retired, Bob McAdoo.
The main positions have been filled for the Raiders, with the head coach and general manager spoken for. Now, it will be extremely important to put the right people in the staff under Pierce to bring the best out of this Raiders team, and they will explore all possible options in order to make the right choices.
Raiders working on hiring Tom Telesco as general manager
With the Raiders choosing to remove the interim tag from Antonio Pierce and make him the permanent head coach, there was a belief that they would do the same with the GM position and name Champ Kelly the permanent general manager.
That won’t be the case, however, as the team is working on hiring former Los Angeles Chargers GM Tom Telesco for the position.
It was reported that owner Mark Davis was concerned about a rookie pairing of general manager and head coach, thus the choice to go with Telesco. While much can be said about the Chargers’ struggles on the field, it isn’t for a lack of talent, as Telesco put together an extremely talented roster there and will look to do the same for the Raiders.
