Falcons Throwback Thursday: QB Chris Miller

Hey Falcoholics, I’m back with another edition of The Falcoholic’s Throwback Thursday series. This weekly segment highlights a former Atlanta Falcons player and discusses their life and what they did for the franchise.

Whether you’ve been a fan since the inaugural season, or just became a fan recently, this series will give insight on players from the past. This week we will be focusing on quarterback Chris Miller.

Christopher James Miller was born on August 9, 1965 in Pomona, California. Although born in California, Miller was raised in Oregon, where he attended Sheldon High School in Eugene. At Sheldon High, Miller was star athlete in basketball, baseball and football.

For college, Chris Miller stayed in-state and attended the University of Oregon. In four seasons with the Ducks, Miller totaled 6,681 passing yards and 42 touchdowns. In the 1985 season, Miller led the Pac-10 Conference with 18 passing touchdowns.

Owen C. Shaw/Getty Images

With the 13^th overall pick in the 1987 NFL Draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected Chris Miller. During his rookie season, Miller backed up quarterback Scott Campbell. He would play seven seasons in Atlanta, as injuries would sideline him, and eventually force him to retire.

When healthy though, Chris Miller was a solid quarterback for the Falcons. In the 1991 season, Miller was selected to his one, and only NFL Pro Bowl. In Atlanta, Miller totaled 14,066 passing yards, 87 touchdowns and a 54.0% completion rate.

The Falcons moved on from Chris Miller following the 1993 season.

For the next two seasons, Chris Miller played for the Los Angeles Rams and then when they moved, the St. Louis Rams. He started 23 games total, and recorded 4,727 passing yards and 34 touchdowns.

Chris Miller stepped away from football after the 1995 season, but attempted a comeback with the Denver Broncos in 1999, but retired after a vicious blow to the head on against the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football.

Gene Lower/Getty Images

Following his retirement from football, Chris Miller returned to Oregon and became the head coach for South Eugene High School from 2001 to 2006. From 2009 to 2012, Miller returned to the NFL as the quarterbacks coach for the Arizona Cardinals. After leaving the Cardinals, he had a highly successful tenure as West Linn High School’s football coach, where he compiled a 52-12 record in five seasons, including a Class 6A title in 2016. It was announced last month that Miller will be the offensive coordinator for the new Houston team in the newly-formed XFL. The head coach for the Houston team is coach June Jones, who coached Miller with the Falcons.

Chris Miller doesn’t get brought up much when reminiscing about Atlanta Falcons’ history. He quarterbacked some bad teams in the late 80s, early 90s. But statistically wise, he’s the third best quarterback in Falcons’ history. Miller has the third most passing yards (14,066) and completions (1,129), and is tied for third in passing touchdowns (87) with quarterback Chris Chandler.

Let me know in the comments below some of your favorite Chris Miller memories. As always, you can find me on Twitter @EvanBirchfield. Thanks for reading, Falcoholics!