Nfl Ultimately Didn't Award Bears A Third-round Compensatory Pick For Ian Cunningham Hire

The list of 2026 compensatory draft picks had one key omission.

The Bears did not receive one as a result of the hiring of assistant G.M. Ian Cunningham to be the General Manager of the Falcons.

The NFL previously explained to PFT that the Bears didn't get two third-round compensatory picks (one this year, one next year) because president of football operations Matt Ryan, not Cunningham, is the "primary football executive" in Atlanta. In response to the follow-up question of why the Saints got compensatory picks when Terry Fontenot was hired to be the Falcons' previous G.M. — at a time when Rich McKay was president and CEO of the Falcons — the league said McKay was not the "primary football executive."

The issue gained momentum during Super Bowl week, when Ryan said Cunningham is in charge of free agency and the draft. At the Scouting Combine, Cunningham said the Bears should have gotten the picks.

The seemingly inconsistent drawing of lines has created plenty of confusion, and it has angered Bears fans. That's a natural consequence of the revision to the Rooney Rule that rewards teams for developing minority coaches or executives who fill one of the top jobs in the sport.

Originally, the proposed revision to the Rooney Rule would have given the picks to the team making the hire. That version of the proposal received immediate pushback, under the argument that it could stigmatize minority hires who would potentially be perceived as getting the jobs in order for their teams to get the extra picks.

The root problem continues to be the league's abysmal history when it comes to hiring minority candidates for head-coaching and G.M. jobs. As former NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith has said, there's no real accountability for the league's collective failure to make hires that defy basic demographic statistics.

Absent accountability, the issue becomes something that the Commissioner will be asked about at every Super Bowl press conference (reporters employed by the league should tread lightly), with no true changes happening. The seemingly arbitrary decision to refuse to give the Bears the picks serves only to draw extra attention to the overall problem.

If, after all, the Bears had gotten the picks, would anyone have complained?