{"id":583376,"date":"2026-04-03T18:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583376\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T18:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:32:08","slug":"nfl-explains-why-bears-wont-receive-compensatory-picks-for-falcons-hiring-ian-cunningham-as-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583376\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL explains why Bears won’t receive compensatory picks for Falcons hiring Ian Cunningham as GM"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s official: The Chicago Bears won\u2019t get any compensatory picks for losing former assistant general manager Ian Cunningham this offseason, the NFL announced Friday<\/a>. The Atlanta Falcons hired Cunningham as their new GM<\/a>, and the Bears argued that, as a result, they should have been rewarded comp picks due to Resolution JC-2A.<\/p>\n

Under that policy, passed in 2020 to help promote diversity in the league<\/a>, franchises that develop minority personnel into head coaches and GMs of other teams are to be compensated with third-round picks in consecutive drafts.<\/p>\n

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According to the NFL, though, Cunningham didn\u2019t fit the criteria because of his current position with the Falcons, who ushered in a new leadership structure this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe matter is now closed following the club\u2019s appeal,\u201d the league stated, per NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NFL informed the Bears today they will not receive compensatory picks. The policy is designed to provide picks for the Primary Football Executive position. The League determined Mr. Cunningham did not fill that role with the Falcons as it is defined in League rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Cunningham is the Falcons\u2019 GM by title, and is carrying out the team\u2019s GM duties, he\u2019s technically under Matt Ryan in the team\u2019s front office pecking order.<\/p>\n

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Ryan, Atlanta\u2019s quarterback from 2008-21, was hired as the franchise\u2019s president of football back in January<\/a>. Following the firings of former GM Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris, Falcons owner Arthur Blank wrote a letter to the fan base. In it, he explained that he\u2019d be hiring a president of football, who would “set the vision and identity for our team<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Ryan got the job, returning to a franchise that the one-time NFL MVP quarterback piloted to the Super Bowl during the 2016 season and to the playoffs a total of six times. He helped lead the head coaching and GM searches, which culminated in the hirings of Kevin Stefanski and Cunningham, respectively.<\/p>\n

Cunningham spent four seasons with the Bears working under Chicago\u2019s GM, Ryan Poles.<\/p>\n

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In the aftermath of Cunningham\u2019s departure, the Bears were hoping to acquire a third-round compensatory pick in this year\u2019s draft and another in the 2027 draft, as they\u2019d typically be entitled to under Resolution JC-2A.<\/p>\n

“I kind of put that whole thing into two buckets,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said of the situation at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, via ESPN<\/a>. “One, I’m really proud that Ian has this opportunity to be a general manager. It’s something we’ve talked about for a long time, before we were even employed by the Bears. It was our vision to climb through the ranks, to get a seat, the GM seat and then help the other one get to their position as well. So I’m really happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poles added at the time: \u201cHow we do that and why we do that has nothing to do with compensation whatsoever. I want to make that very clear. There’s a set of rules that has been put in place that I think can be applied to this situation. So we have communicated through the right channels. We’ll see what happens going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, months later, since the NFL still considers Ryan, not Cunningham, the Falcons\u2019 primary football executive, the Bears aren\u2019t able to reap the benefits of the policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official: The Chicago Bears won\u2019t get any compensatory picks for losing former assistant general manager Ian Cunningham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1276,64,63,1248,285690,31282,232795,2360,35234,593,85,24250],"class_list":{"0":"post-583376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-compensatory-picks","13":"tag-gm","14":"tag-ian-cunningham","15":"tag-ian-rapoport","16":"tag-matt-ryan","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-the-falcons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}