The Chicago Bears front office has only been in place for a year. They’ve barely begun implementing their true vision for the organization, yet GM Ryan Poles already came dangerously close to losing his chief lieutenant. Assistant GM Ian Cunningham was a hot name on the GM circuit this month, emerging as a finalist for both the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans jobs. Monti Ossenfort ended up getting the Cardinals job, so Cunningham became the focus for the Titans’ spot. He went so far as to receive a second interview.
In the end, Tennessee opted to go with San Francisco 49ers player personnel executive Ran Carthon. That wasn’t a huge surprise, given the organization’s recent success in building its roster. Cunningham won’t get his own team this year. However, most experts agree it’s only a matter of time. Even Poles himself stated he brought his friend in, knowing full well he wouldn’t be around long. Yet there is one added benefit to Cunningham sticking around besides his obvious ability as a talent evaluator.
Bears can now be assured compensation for Ian Cunningham.
One of the benefits for San Francisco seeing Carthon get hired is receiving two compensatory 3rd round picks. That is part of the new NFL incentive rules. Teams that elevate and help minority executive becomes GMs receive picks. There is one small wrinkle. The executive must have worked with the organization for at least two years. If Cunningham had been hired during this cycle, the Bears would’ve gotten nothing in return. Now he’ll be around for 2023, which is his second year with the team. That means Chicago gets those compensatory picks if he gets hired as a GM next off-season.
Poles has stated he already has a succession plan in mind for when the time comes. Until then, he plans to milk Ian Cunningham for everything he’s worth. This is easily the most important off-season of the past decade for the Bears. They have $100 million in salary cap space. They have the #1 overall pick. It is a golden opportunity for them to change the future of the franchise. Success would virtually guarantee Cunningham would be running his own by 2024 at the latest. He could turn himself into quite the folk hero.
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Cunningham and Poles are great talent evaluators. I cannot wait til they start FA period.
@martin melhus, yes Jones was a starter all year, and he was ok. For a 5th round pick he did very well. Patrick was terrible, even when he wasn’t injured. Reiff and Shoefield were also both well below average. Not to mention the attempt to sign Bates from the Bills did not end up looking too good since he was also pretty awful this year. Spin it how u want, my point is that is has to be much better next year. I think we can all agree it must get much better. Not saying he and Cunningham can’t do… Read more »
Something is wrong with the system when we are supposed to cheer for taking advantage of a mans skin color. I hope he gets a GM job this year.
Sam K: With limited picks, Poles still found Brax Jones in the 5th round, and he started every game at Left OT, which is a huge deal. The Lucas Patrick FA signing was good, but didn’t pan out because of injury. Given what he has to work with this year, I expect our OL to get a lot better.
All I know is Poles and Cunningham are supposed to be O-Line experts, and we have the worst O-Line in football.. so let’s see some proof and some serious improvement there this year.