NFL finalizes compensatory draft picks: Bears get none for Falcons hiring Ian Cunningham

The Bears did not receive compensatory draft picks for the departure of executive Ian Cunningham to become general manager of the Falcons, even after both teams advocated that the NFL should award them.

The league released its final list of compensatory picks for the upcoming draft and gave 33 of them to 15 teams, leaving the Bears out.

As part of the NFL’s push for diversity, a team receives two third-round picks if a minority staff member is hired by another team as general manager. However, the league considers Falcons president of football Matt Ryan to be the organization’s “primary football executive,” not Cunningham.

Ryan has said Cunningham, who is Black, is the decision maker, and Cunningham said last month at the NFL Scouting Combine the Bears should receive the picks, which would have been a third-rounder this year and next.

“It was always my interpretation that if a general manager gets hired, that team would receive two third-round picks,” he said. “I’m the general manager. I was hired. I would think that they would get two third-round picks.

“I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job.”

That does seem incredibly straightforward.

Cunningham was the Bears’ assistant general manager under Ryan Poles from 2022 until taking the Falcons job in January. The Bears promoted Jeff King to replace him.