Chris Palmer (American football)

Palmer's first professional coaching experience came in 1983, when he was the offensive line coach for the Montreal Concordes in the Canadian Football League. The following year, he coached the wide receivers for the USFL's New Jersey Generals. In 1985, he was promoted to quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. That year, Palmer's offense featured quarterback Doug Flutie and running back Herschel Walker, who rushed for 2,411 yards.

Palmer's first NFL coaching experience was as the Houston Oilers wide receivers coach from 1990 to 1992 when Kevin Gilbride was the Houston offensive coordinator. During those three seasons, the Run ‘N Shoot Oilers had the NFL's most productive passing attack. Four Houston wide receivers—Curtis Duncan, Ernest Givens (twice), Drew Hill and Haywood Jeffires (twice)—made the Pro Bowl while being coached by Palmer.

Palmer first worked under Bill Parcells as the New England Patriots wide receivers coach from 1993 to 1995. In 1996, he became the quarterbacks coach, where he worked with Drew Bledsoe as they advanced to Super Bowl XXXI.

Following Super Bowl XXXI, he joined the Jacksonville Jaguars, spending the 1997–98 seasons as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks under head coach Tom Coughlin.[1]

Palmer became the head coach of the reborn Cleveland Browns for the 1999–2000 seasons, the first two for the "new" Browns after the original team had moved to Baltimore. Palmer struggled to make the team competitive, especially on offense. Palmer was fired after posting a 5–27 record in two seasons, and was succeeded by former University of Miami coach Butch Davis. During his tenure in Cleveland, he starred as himself on an episode of The Drew Carey Show, which took place in Cleveland.

In 2002, he became the offensive coordinator of the expansion Houston Texans under head coach Dom Capers. He remained with Houston until he was fired in Week 2 of the 2005 NFL season as a result of Houston's lackluster offense and would not be retained under new head coach Gary Kubiak.

In January 2006, several months after his firing from Houston, Palmer was hired by the Dallas Cowboys to be the quarterbacks coach. He was reunited with head coach Bill Parcells and quarterback Drew Bledsoe with whom he had worked during his days with the New England Patriots.

In January 2007, Palmer was hired by the New York Giants as their new quarterbacks coach, reuniting with the team's head coach, Tom Coughlin, with whom he had worked in Jacksonville.[2][3] In Palmer's first year with the Giants, they would go on to win Super Bowl XLII, defeating the previously undefeated New England Patriots by a score of 17-14. Palmer coached quarterbacks Eli Manning, Jared Lorenzen, Anthony Wright, David Carr, and Rhett Bomar in his 3 seasons as quarterbacks coach.

On January 29, 2010 Palmer announced his retirement.[4]

Following his retirement from the NFL, Palmer was named as the head coach and general manager of the United Football League's Hartford Colonials.[5]

On February 15, 2011, the Tennessee Titans named Palmer as the new offensive coordinator, which was previously held by Mike Heimerdinger. Under Palmer during the 2011 season the Titans scored 325 points (20.3/g), 21st of 32 in the NFL. On November 26, 2012, Palmer was fired by the team midway through the season, and replaced by quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains.

During the 2014 season, the San Francisco 49ers hired Palmer as an offensive assistant under head coach Jim Harbaugh. 2014 was the inaugural season playing their home games at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. At the end of the season, Harbaugh left the Niners to become the head coach at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, and had released Greg Roman, the offensive coordinator, and ultimately Palmer as well.

Palmer followed Roman to Buffalo, served as an offensive assistant on Rex Ryan's staff from 2015 to 2016. He was not retained under new head coach Sean McDermott.

Palmer returned to New Haven to serve as the director of athletics and recreation for the Chargers' NCAA Division II athletics program in January 2018.[6] He retired in June 2019.[7]

He was inducted into the New Haven Chargers Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997 for his previous success as the school's head football coach.[8]