{"id":489822,"date":"2026-02-25T15:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489822\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:17:07","slug":"ian-cunningham-thinks-bears-should-get-draft-picks-for-falcons-hiring-him-as-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489822\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Cunningham thinks Bears should get draft picks for Falcons hiring him as GM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL\u2019s Rooney Rule calls for teams that develop minority executives or coaches to receive a pair of third-round picks when they move on to other clubs as General Managers and head coaches, but the Bears are currently not expected to receive<\/a> those compensatory selections after Ian Cunningham left the team to become the GM in Atlanta. <\/p>\n

According to the NFL, the Bears are not getting those picks because president of football Matt Ryan is the top football executive in Atlanta. Ryan said earlier this month that Cunningham is the one \u201cdriving the ship\u201d and Cunningham said at a Scouting Combine press conference on Tuesday that the Bears should be getting picks based on his understanding of the rule. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had much time to really dive<\/a> into the wording of it,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cIt was always my interpretation that if a general manager gets hired, that team would receive two third-round picks. I\u2019m the General Manager. I was hired. I would think that they would get two third-round picks. I don\u2019t know the wording of it. That\u2019s just my perspective. I wouldn\u2019t be sitting here if it weren\u2019t for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bears GM Ryan Poles called it \u201ca little odd<\/a>\u201d that the Chiefs got picks when he was hired in Chicago and called the entire rule \u201cstrange,\u201d but that it is also \u201cvery clear\u201d that the Bears should be receiving those picks in the current situation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL\u2019s Rooney Rule calls for teams that develop minority executives or coaches to receive a pair of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-489822","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\/489822","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=489822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}