Miller Has Shown He Can Do a Great Everett Impression : Pro football: But Rams, who face Saints today, were looking for something more.

The return of Jim Everett? But he never left.

The Rams announced after the 1993 season that they had traded Everett to New Orleans for a seventh-round pick in the 1994 draft.

The Rams got rid of a quarterback who had gone 3-6 as a starter last season with more interceptions than touchdowns and who blamed others for his misfortune, and acquired a quarterback who is now 2-6 as a starter with more interceptions than touchdowns and who makes excuses for his failures.

The cloning of Jim Everett produced Chris Miller, and like twins separated at birth, they might be 2,000 miles apart but they are still alike in so many ways:

--The Saints and Rams are 4-8, the only 4-8 teams in the NFL.

--Everett and Miller have thrown seven interceptions each in the fourth quarter this season, the only two NFC quarterbacks to have thrown that many in the fourth quarter.

--Everett has a .304 winning percentage as a starting quarterback in the ‘90s, Miller a .308 mark.

“I’ve had some good games and had some poor games. Right now I’m going one week at a time, hoping to play well,” Miller said. A year ago, Everett was saying the same thing.

So, Everett is gone, his ’93 replacement, T.J. Rubley, has been released, and the Rams continue to have a problem at quarterback.

Miller appears to be one or two more interceptions away from being replaced once again by Chris Chandler, who becomes a free agent at the end of the season. Tommy Maddox, who was acquired from Denver for a fourth-round draft pick, has been given the cold shoulder by the coaching staff.

Just who is the No. 1 quarterback for the Rams in the years to come?

“Those are the kinds of things that we just don’t want to discuss in the press,” said Mike Martz, Ram quarterback coach. “It’s just not something we want to do. Those are decisions that haven’t necessarily been made yet, and to start airing it out now without knowing how it stacks up wouldn’t be right. . . . It’s not a secret, I just don’t know.”

Miller should be the Rams’ no-doubt-about-it starting quarterback, considering that the team is paying him $9 million for three years. But Miller, who said his goal this season was to complete 62% of his passes, has completed only 51.9% and has failed to impress consistently.

“Do I feel Chris came in here and did really what he (wanted?)” defensive end Fred Strickland said. “I don’t think that has happened this year, or up until this point, because of certain situations, like getting hurt. The top spot hasn’t been sewed up at all because it’s more like who’s healthy this week, that’s who starts.”

Miller riled Coach Chuck Knox earlier this season after blaming his misguided passes in the Georgia Dome on the wet pants of center Bern Brostek. He said he was unable to grip the ball properly, and then later, after a loss to Green Bay, he blamed a fourth-quarter interception on wide receiver Flipper Anderson, saying Anderson had run the wrong route.

This week he singled out wide receiver Jessie Hester for the same offense and said another of his four interceptions against San Diego had been caused by the coaches in the press box incorrectly identifying the opposition’s defense. When players and coaches chastised him for his remarks, he told them he was misquoted, although his comments were caught on the tape recorders of half a dozen reporters.

“That’s not good; nobody wants to see that,” said Anthony Newman, Ram safety and defensive team captain. “It’s bothersome. If you feel that way--in any job--you should keep it to yourself.”

A year ago Everett called the Ram offense “obsolete,” and criticized his offensive line for not providing time to operate.

“(Everett) did it all the time; it’s terrible,” linebacker Shane Conlan said. “That’s the worst thing that can happen to a team. Everybody hates losing, but when people start calling guys out, that’s when you get chaos.”

The Rams insist they remain unified, but a loss to Everett and the Saints will assure them of a fifth consecutive losing season and raise more questions about the direction of the team.

In the first game between the Saints and Rams this season in New Orleans, Everett prevailed, 37-34. He completed 17 of 26 passes for 206 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions and said after the game, “This was a big win for me. If I was a hot-air balloon, I’d be way up there by now.”

Miller, before suffering a concussion against the Saints, completed seven of 11 passes for 88 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Recovered now, he goes against a defense that has surrendered the most touchdowns passing, 24, in the league.

“In order for us to be a quality team, we’re going to need somebody to emerge at the quarterback position,” running back Jerome Bettis said. “It’s not a discredit to the guys we have, but you just have to have to solid play out of the position if you’re going to have the chance to be a good team.”