Chicago Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham is leaving to become the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, the team announced Thursday evening.
After four years with the Bears, Cunningham heads to Atlanta to work with the franchise’s new president of football, Matt Ryan.
“It was evident through our rigorous interview process Ian was the right choice for our general manager position,” Ryan said in a statement. “His vision for our team and organization aligned exactly with the type of leader we were seeking to help take the Falcons to the next level.”
One of the first moves Bears GM Ryan Poles made when he took over football operations at Halas Hall in January 2022 was to hire Cunningham as his No. 2. Cunningham, a former college offensive lineman like Poles, previously worked for the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles front offices.
Cunningham, 40, interviewed this month for the Falcons president of football position, but the job went to Ryan, the former MVP quarterback. The Falcons are reorganizing their front office after firing GM Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris this month. In his role as GM, Cunningham will report to Ryan, who also led the search for new coach Kevin Stefanski.
That could be notable for the Bears if the NFL determines that Cunningham is not taking what the league calls a team’s “primary football executive” role. The NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates, rewards teams with a compensatory draft pick if another team hires away a minority candidate for its top executive job or head coaching position.
In this case, the NFL might consider Ryan the primary football executive and the Bears might not receive any compensation for losing Cunningham.
There are plenty of interesting threads to this move. Poles and Ryan played together at Boston College, so Ryan certainly knew whom to call for a reference about Cunningham.
Cunningham has been interviewing for GM positions for several years. He was a finalist a year ago for the Jacksonville Jaguars job, a reported finalist for the Washington Commanders job in 2024 and he turned down the Arizona Cardinals job in 2023, among other interviews.
Now he will begin a new journey in Atlanta.
Associated Press contributed.