{"id":461101,"date":"2026-02-11T00:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/461101\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T00:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:07:07","slug":"bears-didnt-get-picks-for-ian-cunningham-hire-because-matt-ryan-is-falcons-primary-football-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/461101\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears didn’t get picks for Ian Cunningham hire because Matt Ryan is Falcons’ “primary football executive”"},"content":{"rendered":"

When is a primary football executive truly the primary football executive?<\/p>\n

Regarding the Falcons\u2019 hiring of former Bears assistant G.M. Ian Cunningham to be the successor to Terry Fontenot, the NFL decided that Cunningham will not be the primary football executive. Which prevented the Bears from getting a pair of third-round picks under the provision in the Rooney Rule that rewards teams for developing minority employees who secure promotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe policy for receiving picks pertains to the head coach or the primary football executive,\u201d the NFL told PFT on Tuesday via email. \u201cThe primary football executive position was filled by Matt Ryan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan was hired to be the Falcons\u2019 president of football operations. After he took the job, it was reported that the Bears would not receive compensatory draft picks<\/a> if Cunningham (who also interviewed for Ryan\u2019s job) becomes the G.M.<\/p>\n

The issue resurfaced last week, after Ryan said Cunningham will control free agency and the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in charge of that space<\/a>,\u201d Ryan said regarding Cunningham. \u201cHe is driving this boat, and he\u2019s the one leading us moving forward. This is Ian\u2019s regular season right now, and he is in it; he is driving the ship right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our question to the league was prompted by Ryan\u2019s comments. The answer, as quoted above, is that Ryan is the primary football executive.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where it gets confusing. When the Falcons hired Fontenot to be the G.M. in 2022, the Saints (Fontenot\u2019s former employer) received the compensatory picks<\/a>. But Rich McKay was the team president and CEO \u2014 and as of 2022 he was involved in football operations.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve asked for an explanation as to why the picks were awarded then, if they\u2019re not being awarded now. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When is a primary football executive truly the primary football executive? Regarding the Falcons\u2019 hiring of former Bears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-461101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}