Aug 13, 2011; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams general manager Billy Devaney before the game against the Indianapolis Colts at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

We haven’t heard much from former GM Billy Devaney since he was let go by the Rams following last season’s debacle, but Billy D made up for that in a big way when he joined Doug Farrar and Rob Rang on Chalk Talk Saturday. Devaney had plenty to say about what happened during last year’s 2-14 season, so let’s get into some of his quotes. I can’t get everything he said in here, but here are some of the highlights.

“I still ask myself that, almost every day,” Devaney said, in response to that question. “The short version is when I was named general manager, we were looking for a head coach. And went through the hiring process, had great candidates, and knew (Steve) Spagnuolo from way back when I worked at the Redskins, he was an intern, so they hired Spags. As soon as Spags gets hired, the team is for sale. Chip and Lucia (Rosenbloom) inherit the team from Georgia Frontiere. Through a whole mess of legalese and tax issues, they tried everything they could to keep the team and they weren’t going to be able to.

“So the team went up for sale. It was an old roster. Really old roster. There were some guaranteed contracts on there that we had to live with. Spags and I could got together with Chip and we said ‘Listen, this is going to be a complete overhaul, let’s just bite the bullet and, rather than do it piece meal, let’s blow the whole damn thing up.’”

“We lose Pat Shurmur to the Cleveland Browns, he’s our offensive coordinator. And the decision was made to bring in Josh McDaniels and change the whole offense. And it kind of completely blew up on us,” Devaney said. “It was the perfect storm. When you look at it, we had a ton of injuries, no offseason. It was just one thing after another. I could tell in training camp — I mean early on, I don’t even know if we started playing a preseason game — things just, especially on offense, things just looked really … nobody looked comfortable.

“And our (2011) schedule was ridiculous. I mean, we were hoping, and this is — we’re trying to be optimistic — we were hoping at the halfway point, we may have had two wins. We thought if we could scratch out two wins, the back end of the schedule, we could win a couple of more games. Well, I don’t know if we won any. We may have won one, but by that time, the roster was decimated. We were working corners out on Tuesday and they were lining up and starting for us on Sunday. … Five or six of those guys, I couldn’t even tell you who they were.

January 17, 2012; St, Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams new head coach Jeff Fischer (center) speaks to the media as owner Stanley Kroenke (left) and vice president of football operations Kevin Demoff (right) look on during his first press conference at the Russell Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

The St. Louis Rams’ search for a GM is finally over. The team has reached an agreement with former Atlanta Falcons director of player personnel Les Snead to replace Billy Devaney as the general manager in St. Louis. Snead has been with the Falcons since 1998 after a stint with the Jaguars, and he was on the Rams original list of candidates when it came out before the hiring of Jeff Fisher as head coach.

I have to admit that I was a little surprised to hear this news. Not because of Snead, because I’ve been hearing his name quite a bit during this search. It just caught me off-guard that this happened all of a sudden today. I thought this thing might get settled sometime next week, but apparently the organization had cut the list down to Snead and Minnesota’s George Paton before Paton accepted a promotion with the Vikings. With him off the table, the decision to go with Snead was pretty easy.

I like the hire, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about this guy. He’s well-liked around the league, and he is well-respected by his peers. His name has been out there for a couple of years as a future GM, so I can’t wait to see what he can do. It’s no secret that Fisher had his say in this hire, and I’m willing to trust his judgement at this point. If Fisher thinks Snead is the right man for the job, then I’m on board. I’m just happy the position is filled so we can get things ready fo the upcoming combine.

Grigson is an intriguing candidate, and one that will certainly get heavy consideration. He logged some time in the NFL and CFL during his playing years, and then he jumped into front-office work. Most importantly, he spent 1999-2003 as a scout for the Rams organization before moving to Philly and working his way up. I would guess that, all things being equal, being familiar with the organization would give him an advantage over other candidates, but it doesn’t give him a huge advantage. I like his resume and he is only 39, so keep him in mind.

Also, the team plans to interview Denver defensive coordinator Dennis Allen for their head coaching position. Allen has done a nice job with the Broncos, but I don’t know how serious of a candidate he is. The team has to have numerous backup plan in case Fisher chooses Miami.