William Joseph Peter Francis Devaney (born March 7, 1955) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

executive who was recently the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

New Jersey Generals The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...

of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL), a position he has held since 2023. Prior to that Devaney was a football executive. He was the

for the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

from

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. He used to be an assistant to the general manager with the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

. He replaced the longtime Rams president of football operations, Jay Zygmunt, at the end of the 2008 season. Devaney began his career serving as the director of pro personnel under Bobby Beathard during his time with the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

from 1990 to 2000. He also worked a brief stint with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

for three seasons. Devaney then worked with the CBS pregame show for two years. In 2006 Devaney began working as an assistant to

Rich McKay Richard James McKay (born March 16, 1959) is an American professional American football, football executive who is the CEO of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). Prior to joining the Falcons, he was the general manager of ...

, president and former general manager of the

from 2006 to early 2008. In February 2008 the St. Louis Rams hired him as vice president of pro personnel to help conduct their 2008 draft. He was promoted to general manager of the Rams on December 24, 2008. He made his first major hire as the Rams' general manager on January 17, 2009, when the Rams announced that Steve Spagnuolo would be its new head coach. Since the hiring he had revamped the entire front office of the

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Leonardo section of

Middletown Township, New Jersey Middletown Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in northern Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township was List of municipalities in New Jersey, the ...

, and attended Mater Dei High School. He went on to attend

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, the university is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or ...

. On February 24, 2016, Devaney was hired by the University of Nebraska as executive director of player personnel and special assistant to the head coach for the football team. Proceeding the firing of Mike Riley, Devaney was fired on December 15, 2017. In 2018, the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan area ...

named him the general manager of the Atlanta Legends. In 2022, the

named Devaney the general manager of the

. On January 1, 2024, it was announced the Generals would not be a part of the UFL Merger.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devaney, Billy 1955 births Living people Atlanta Falcons executives St. Louis Rams executives NFL general managers Elon University alumni Mater Dei High School (New Jersey) alumni Sportspeople from Middletown Township, New Jersey Sportspeople from Red Bank, New Jersey