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Bears general manager Ryan Poles.
Multiple NFL insiders have confirmed bad news for the Chicago Bears in the wake of Ian Cunningham departing to accept the Atlanta Falcons‘ GM job.
The Falcons officially announced they hired Cunningham as their next general manager on Thursday, January 29, bringing to an end their weekslong search under newly hired president of football Matt Ryan after interviewing Cunningham at least three times.
Under normal circumstances, Cunningham’s departure would result in a kickback for the Bears in the form of two third-round compensatory draft picks in each of the next two NFL drafts, per the guidelines about minority hiring laid out in the Rooney Rule.
According to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin and several other NFL insiders — both within and outside the Chicago market — the Bears won’t receive picks for the hire, though.
“Per league rules, the Bears will not receive two compensatory third-round picks because Cunningham is not being hired by Atlanta as the primary football executive,” Cronin wrote Thursday on X in response to a fan question about the picks. “That position was filled by Matt Ryan.”
Cronin also added that eligibility for compensatory draft picks “isn’t something a team can appeal,” meaning the Bears have no recourse for the Falcons exploiting a loophole.
Bears Reporters Have Warned About Comp Pick Reality
Cronin was not the only reporter to chime in about the stark reality of the Bears missing out on two third-round compensatory picks following Cunningham’s hiring this week.
“Cunningham is considered a secondary football executive who reports to Ryan, the PFE [primary football executive] as designated by the team and league office,” CBS Sports insider Jonathan Jones wrote on January 29. “It is due to this structure that the Bears will not receive compensatory picks for losing Cunningham, a Black man.”
Citing multiple league sources, Jones also wrote that the Bears have known “for some amount of time” that they would not receive compensatory draft picks if Cunningham accepted the Falcons’ GM job, which makes sense, given Ryan Poles’ involvement.
As The Athletic’s Dianni Russini disclosed earlier in January, Poles is close friends with Ryan from their time together as teammates at Boston College and has been helping him with “the entire hiring process” over the past several weeks. Even if Poles did not initially realize that losing Cunningham would not result in a compensatory payout, he was unlikely to block the hiring and obstruct his two friends from coming together.
Jordan J. Wilson is a sports reporter who covers the NFL and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. He has previously covered all levels of sports — high school, college and pro — for a variety of publications including The Indianapolis Star, The News-Gazette, Springfield State-Journal Register and Peoria Journal Star. More about Jordan J. Wilson
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