National Football League

Giants QB coach Palmer retires after 38 seasons

Published Jan. 30, 2010 1:53 a.m. ET

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Veteran coach Chris Palmer retired after 38 seasons, including 20 in the NFL, with the last three coming as the New York Giants' quarterbacks coach.

The Giants announced the retirement of the former Cleveland Browns head coach on Friday.

Palmer, who helped Eli Manning develop into a Super Bowl-winning and Pro Bowl quarterback in his first season with the Giants, twice worked as an assistant under Tom Coughlin, first as the Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator in 1997-98 and with the Giants since 2007.

Palmer, 60, also coached for two teams in Houston the Oilers and Texans as well as the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys.

During his NFL career, he tutored Pro Bowl quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe, Mark Brunell, Tony Romo and Manning.

``Chris did an outstanding job coaching Eli,'' Coughlin said. ``He has been Eli's coach and confidant in the years that he's been here. Eli and Chris had a very good working relationship. I believe Eli has established himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League, and I see nothing but continued improvement in the future.''

Manning completed 317 of 509 passes for 4,021 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions this season. The completions, percentage, yards and touchdowns were all career highs. Manning became just the third quarterback in Giants' history to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a season, joining Kerry Collins (4,073 in 2002) and Phil Simms (4,044 in 1984). He is the only quarterback in franchise history with five consecutive 3,000-yard seasons and five consecutive seasons with 20 touchdown passes.

``Over the last three years we've had some great success and I've improved as a quarterback,'' Manning said. ``He's a terrific coach when it comes to technique. He's great not only on the field but also in the meeting room. I'm really sorry to see him go.''

Palmer said that Manning grew as a player every season.

``He was a guy that you looked forward to coming to work with every day, because he was going to challenge you and he was going to look for ways to get better. We hit it off from day one,'' Palmer said.

Palmer came to the Giants after spending the 2006 season as the Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach, where he helped Romo take off. He worked with David Carr in five seasons as the Texans' offensive coordinator.

Palmer posted a 5-27 record in two seasons as the coach of the expansion Cleveland Browns.

During Palmer's stint in Jacksonville, the Jaguars won the AFC Central championship in 1998 and averaged 325.9 yards a game, which was fifth in the NFL.

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