The first of four Eagles to win the coveted Payton Award, Erik Meyer was a two-time All-American at EWU (2004 and 2005) and was named the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year as a junior and senior. Meyer won the 2005 Walter Payton Award, presented at that time by The Sports Network to the top player in NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). Since then, former Eastern quarterbacks Bo Levi Mitchell (2011), Cooper Kupp (2015) and Eric Barriere (2021) have won the honor. Meyer was also selected in 2005 as the Offensive Player of the Year by FCS.org, and he was honored on the FCS.org All-Star squad, which recognized just 40 players nationally from the 116 teams in FCS. In addition, Meyer was the Offensive Back of the Year by the Football Gazette. Meyer earned first team All-America honors from The Sports Network, Associated Press and Football Gazette and was a second team choice by the Sports Xchange (NFL Draft Scout).
Meyer was selected for induction into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame in 2024, just the second such honor for an Eastern football player. He was honored in the third class of inductees, with the ceremony taking place in Spokane on July 20, 2024. In 2023, offensive tackle Michael Roos was the first Eastern football player to be selected to the Big Sky Hall of Fame. He played alongside Meyer at EWU from 2001-04, and EWU’s 2004 squad went on to upset No. 1 ranked and top-seeded Southern Illinois 35-31 on the road in the first round of the playoffs. Meyer followed his Big Sky honor by being inducted into the La Mirada (Calif.) High School Athletic Hall of Fame in the spring of 2025. He graduated from La Mirada in 2001 and redshirted at EWU in 2001 before playing four seasons for the Eagles from 2002-05. Meyer was selected by the Eastern Athletic Department to the “100 for 100” All-Time Football Team, which was honored on Sept. 27, 2008, to commemorate Eastern’s 100th year of football. Fans voted him as the top quarterback in school history. As part of the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Big Sky Conference in the 2013-14 school year, he was selected as No. 12 on the list of the league’s 50 Greatest Male Athletes.
Meyer became just the 12th player in FCS history to throw for at least 4,000 yards in a single season (he finished with 4,003 in 2005). He also had 30 touchdowns, just five interceptions and a passing efficiency rating of 169.3 which still ranks No. 3 in school history (through 2025) to rank only behind his 2004 mark of 171.4 and the current record of 183.1 set by Vernon Adams Jr. in 2013. With a completion percentage of .657, 10,261 yards, 84 touchdowns and just 17 interceptions in 42 career games, Meyer broke the FCS record for efficiency rating by quarterbacks with at least 400 completions with a rating of 166.47. His rating of 166.47 narrowly surpassed the previous record of 166.27 set by Montana’s Dave Dickenson from 1992-95. It stood as a FCS record for two years and now ranks fourth (through 2025). That mark was an EWU record for 12 years until broken by Vernon Adams in 2014 and still ranks second. His efficiency rating in 2004 of 171.4 stood as a school record for nine seasons and still ranks No. 2 in school history. Meyer set all three school records for completion percentage – 90.5 percent versus Northern Arizona on Oct. 9, 2004, 67.8 percent in 2004 and 65.7 percent in his career – and all three stood for 20 years until broken in the 2024 season by Kekoa Visperas. In his 2005 campaign Meyer had school records with 4,003 passing yards and 333.6 yards per game (both broken by Bo Levi Mitchell in 2011). Meyer became just the 17th player in FCS history to pass for more than 10,000 yards in his career. His total of 10,261 yards was an EWU record for four seasons and now ranks fourth. Coupled with rushing yards, Meyer set a school record at the time with 10,942 yards of total offense and now ranks fifth in school history.
In all, Meyer set eight career records, five single season marks and one single game record at EWU. The single season records Meyer broke in 2005 were for passing yards (4,003), passing yards per game (333.6) and total offense (4,224). Several of his school records were broken by Matt Nichols (2006-09), who was 996-of-1608 for 12,616 yards and 96 touchdowns in his career, and had a total of 13,308 yards of total offense. Meyer was 21-14 in 35 games as a starter at EWU, a winning percentage of .600. He was 7-5 in 2005 and 9-4 in 2004 as the lone Eastern starter at quarterback those two seasons, and was 5-5 in starting 10 of the team’s 11 games in 2003. He played in a total of 42 games as an Eagle, including one as a backup in 2003 and six as a backup in 2002. He helped lead Eastern to winning seasons each year, with collective records of 28-19 overall and 17-11 in the Big Sky. In his final two seasons, Eastern was 11-3 in the Big Sky and 16-9 overall as Eastern won Big Sky Conference co-championships each year and advanced to the NCAA Championship Subdivision Playoffs each year.
One of his teammates at Eastern – and his favorite receiver target -- was fellow two-time All-American Eric Kimble. The Meyer-to-Kimble legacy will be remembered forever, as the pair hooked-up a total of 201 times for 3,169 yards and 35 touchdowns in four seasons. But those numbers came in just 35 games with Meyer as the starting quarterback. That duo even hooked up the other way in the 2005 season on an 11-yard pass from Kimble to Meyer. Meyer and Kimble broke more than a dozen records each as they re-wrote Eastern’s record book and made their way up Big Sky Conference and NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) career listings.
Meyer began his coaching career at Eastern in 2012, and since then has had collegiate coaching stops at Central Washington, California and Cal Poly. He spent the 2013 season as quarterbacks coach at Central Washington, then moved on to coach at his alma mater, La Mirada High School. He joined former Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin and former Eastern receivers coach Nick Edwards on the staff at California of the Pac-12 Conference. Meyer served on the staff as a quality control coach on offense under Baldwin, who was the offensive coordinator. Edwards was running backs coach after serving as wide receivers coach. Meyer then became quarterbacks coach at Cal Poly when Baldwin took the head coaching position there on Dec. 11, 2019. Meyer later served as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under former Eastern head coach Paul Wulff at Cal Poly.
Meyers’ professional playing career started when he signed a free agent contract with Cincinnati of the NFL in 2006, and included honors in 2013 as MVP of the Arena Football League and in 2015 as ArenaBowl Player of the Game. He accounted for 13,197 yards and 337 touchdowns in his six-year career in the AFL, including five seasons from 2010-14 playing for the Spokane Shock and one season for the San Jose SaberCats in 2015. His career totals include a 67.5 percent completion percentage (1,115-of-1,653), for 12,778 yards, 292 touchdowns and 32 interceptions, plus 419 yards and 45 touchdowns rushing. He led the San Jose SaberCats to the AFL title in 2015 in his first year with the team. The SaberCats finished with a league-record 20 victories against just one loss, including wins over the Portland Thunder (55-29) and the Arizona Rattlers (70-67) in the playoffs and a victory over the Jacksonville Sharks (68-47) in ArenaBowl XXVIII. Meyer was the Offensive Player of the Game after passing for 204 yards and four touchdowns and rushing for 26 yards and two more scores. His professional career came to a halt on Nov. 12, 2015, when the SaberCats announced they were ceasing operations.
Meyer is now the
offensive coordinator for
St. Paul High School in
Santa Fe Springs, California, a position he’s held since 2025. His parents are Ken and Nancy Meyer, and they rarely missed an Eastern game home and away when Meyer was playing and coaching in Cheney. Erik’s sister, Erika, followed him to Eastern and worked for the school newspaper while at EWU. Their younger brother, Tristan, went on to play quarterback at Sacramento State after Erik was able to help coach him at La Mirada HS.
More on Meyer’s Professional Career . . .
After getting released by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2006, Meyer kept his NFL hopes alive by playing in spring and summer 2007 for the Cologne Centurions in NFL Europa. He took over as the starter in the third game of the season and helping the team to a 6-4 record. He completed 68.8 percent of his passes to set a NFL Europa record that will never be broken (the NFL decided to cease existence of the league shortly after the season). He ranked second among NFLE quarterbacks with a passer rating of 101.1. He completed 141-of-241 passes for 1,612 yards, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. Meyer also added 138 rushing yards and one touchdown. He was NFL Europa’s Player of the Week after his performance for the Cologne Centurions in a key victory over the Amsterdam Admirals on June 9. He completed 21-of-29 passes for 287 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions during Cologne’s 31-13 victory. That performance gave him a league-best quarterback rating of 138.1 in the game, edging his against Berlin. He earned the starting position in week three with a 14-6 victory over the Rhein Fire. At the time, the win moved the Centurions into second place in the standings behind the defending champion Frankfurt Galaxy. He helped fuel a 20-17 comeback victory over Rhein after being down with just over 20 minutes left in the game. In 2008, Meyer signed and released by the Oakland Raiders after missing the 2007 NFL season to recover from a broken leg suffered just after he was signed and released by the Seattle Seahawks. Meyer signed on Feb. 25, 2009, with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League but was released on May 27. Meyer then played from 2010-2014 for the Spokane Shock in the Arena Football League. In his five-year career (regular season only), he completed 67.7 percent of his passes (762-of-1,125) for 8,721 yards, 199 touchdowns and just 26 interceptions. He also rushed for 277 yards and 39 scores. In 2014, he suffered a broken collarbone and missed six full regular season games. But he returned with a vengeance, helping the Shock win its final five games to advance to the playoffs. He finished his 12-game season with 2,519 yards and 54 touchdowns while completing 66.7 percent of his passes (235-of-354). He also rushed for a franchise-record 20 touchdowns and had a team-leading 111 yards on 48 carries. Twice he was the league’s Player of the Week, including in week 7 when he passed for 244 yards and six touchdowns, and rushed for two more TDs, in a 53-41 win over Tampa Bay. In his first week back after his injury, he was selected as POW after passing and rushing for three scores each in a 70-30 romp over San Antonio. In the 2013 regular season, he had 112 passing touchdowns to set a new franchise single season record. He helped lead the Shock to a 14-4 record and a playoff berth, while completing 68 percent of his passes for 4,667 yards (259.3 per game) and just 11 interceptions. As a result, he was selected as the league’s MVP and the AFL Offensive Player of the Year. He began the 2013 season by attempting his first 193 passes without an interception, with a remarkable 40 touchdowns and 5-0 record in that span. In a 66-43 victory over Iowa on April 5, 2013, he completed 24-of-34 passes for 330 yards and nine TDs. He played in only three games in the 2012 season before a concussion ended his season. He was 25-of-45 for 294 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. During the 2011 season – which also was shortened by a concussion – Meyer completed 75 percent of his passes (80-of-107) for 967 yards, 22 touchdowns and only three interceptions in five games. In his debut as an AFL starter on June 10, 2011, he completed 26-of-36 passes for 332 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception in a 75-54 win over Philadelphia. In his next game, a 63-60 win over Chicago, he was 15-of-19 for 202 yards, five touchdowns and one interception in just over a half of action. He suffered a concussion after staking Spokane to a 49-27 lead. He was a backup in 2010 for Spokane and played in two games, completing 18-of-28 passes for 274 yards and five touchdowns. The Shock went on to win the AFL Championship – its third league title in the team’s five-year existence. Included in his completions was a 31-yard TD pass to former Eastern teammate Raul Vijil against Utah in a 77-28 victory. Meyer then signed with the Utah Blaze for the 2011 season, but did not throw a pass before being traded back to Spokane in June 2011. In the 2015 regular season in San Jose, Meyer completed 66.9 percent of his passes (353-of-528) for 4,057 yards, 93 touchdowns and just six interceptions. He also rushed for a team-high 142 yards en route to earning second team All-AFL honors. Meyer passed for 286 yards and eight touchdowns in San Jose’s 56-29 rout of Arizona late in the season to earn AFL offensive Player of the Week honors.
