The NFL announced Friday that the Chicago Bears will not receive compensatory draft picks for the Atlanta Falcons’ hiring of Ian Cunningham as general manager, ending weeks of appeals that reached all the way to Commissioner Roger Goodell’s office.
NFL’s Ruling on Ian Cunningham Opens a Loophole Other Teams Can Exploit
The NFL’s reasoning remained unchanged from its initial decision: Cunningham isn’t the “primary football executive” in Atlanta because president of football Matt Ryan holds that designation. Under the league’s diversity initiative, teams receive two third-round compensatory picks when a minority executive departs for a GM position elsewhere.
“The matter is now closed following the club’s appeal,” the NFL said. “The 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 statement noted. “The League determined Mr. Cunningham did not fill that role with the Falcons as it is defined in League rules.”
The problem with that logic is that Ryan himself has repeatedly contradicted it. At Cunningham’s introductory press conference, Ryan said he had “a lot to learn” and that “Ian is in charge and he is driving this boat.” Cunningham handles all roster decisions, free agency, and the draft.
“I’m the general manager, I was hired, I would think they would get two third-round picks,” Cunningham said at the NFL Combine in February. “… I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now.”
The NFL world on social media wasn’t pleased with the league’s decision of not giving the compensatory picks to the Bears. Here’s how they reacted:
“What a joke,” wrote PFSN’s Jacob Infante to express his disappointment over the league’s decision.
https://t.co/M6MmyLzK9O pic.twitter.com/GYiw1TKdST
— Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) April 3, 2026
“I hope the next person who gets to interview Roger Goodell asks him some really tough questions about this situation,” wrote Marcus Leshock on X. “Whether you are a fan of the Bears or not, this decision really doesn’t seem to make sense.”
Sounds like the NFL does not want to leave any wiggle room otherwise it would expose flaws in the Rooney Rule https://t.co/Pq0e1ZEAGe
— Peggy Kusinski (@peggykusinski) April 3, 2026
“NFL teams are just going to cheat this system now lol,” wrote Joe Herff. “Such garbage.”
Both the Bears and Falcons agreed Chicago deserved the picks, and so did the executive who actually runs the Falcons’ football operations. However, the NFL disagreed anyway.
That creates an obvious workaround for franchises looking to poach minority executives. Designate someone else as the “primary football executive” on paper, hand the actual GM responsibilities to the new hire, and the original team loses both their executive and the picks meant to compensate them. The rule designed to reward organizations for developing minority talent now punishes them instead.
How the Chicago Bears Made Their Case to the NFL
Owner George McCaskey, president Kevin Warren, and GM Ryan Poles flew to New York to present their argument directly to Goodell. McCaskey emphasized that Chicago did exactly what the league’s diversity initiative encourages.
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“We identified diverse talent, we recruited him, we created a position for him,” McCaskey said at the owners’ meetings. “We allowed him to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. … We made him ready to be a general manager in the NFL.”
Poles hired Cunningham as assistant general manager in 2022, a newly formed position designed specifically for his development. That investment paid off when Atlanta came calling in January. Now, Chicago loses one of its top executives without the draft capital the league promised for just such a scenario.
The timing stings. The 2026 NFL Draft begins April 23, less than three weeks away. Those two third-round picks would have given Chicago meaningful ammunition to add to a roster in the middle of a contention window under Ben Johnson.
Instead, the Bears get nothing, and the next team looking to hire away a minority executive just got a blueprint for avoiding compensation altogether.
