{"id":716150,"date":"2026-01-30T09:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716150\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:15:26","slug":"bears-assistant-general-manager-ian-cunningham-hired-as-new-falcons-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716150\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham hired as new Falcons GM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cunningham will officially succeed Terry Fontenot, who was <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/falcons-firing-hc-raheem-morris-following-two-seasons-with-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fired<\/a>, along with head coach Raheem Morris on Jan. 4, after an 8-9 season that fell far short of expectations for Blank. Indeed, 2026 will be a pivotal point for the franchise, with Cunningham succeeding Fontenot, who had been the team&#8217;s general manager since 2021. Atlanta hasn&#8217;t advanced to the postseason or tallied a winning season since 2017, when Dan Quinn was head coach, Thomas Dimitroff was GM and Ryan was the team&#8217;s quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>With Ryan overseeing the newly structured Falcons, the expectation is Stefanski, Cunningham and a returning <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/michael-penix-jr\/\" title=\"Michael Penix Jr.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Penix Jr.<\/a> at quarterback will drive the franchise to prosperity that&#8217;s been so arduous to find for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham is fresh off a turnaround in Chicago, as he was Bears GM Ryan Poles&#8217; right-hand man as the team restructured a roster, hired an offensive-minded head coach in Ben Johnson and saw fruit beared in the form of an NFC North title and an NFC Divisional Round appearance.<\/p>\n<p>While the Jaguars&#8217; GM-less contingent was hiring Coen, Cunningham had already played a hand in the Bears and GM Ryan Poles <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/bears-finalizing-deal-to-hire-lions-oc-ben-johnson-as-next-head-coac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">landing<\/a> Ben Johnson to lead Chicago. It was the latest impressive bullet point on a resume that boasts a background with strong analytics and scouting experience.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham has been part of two Super Bowl-winning squads: the 2012 Baltimore Ravens as a personnel assistant and the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles as the director of college scouting.<\/p>\n<p>Following lengthy runs with Baltimore (2008-2016) and Philadelphia (2017-2021), Cunningham&#8217;s time with Chicago was his shortest, having joined the franchise in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s risen up the ranks and now is taking the reins of the Falcons with the aim of turning the franchise around and wrapping up a thus-far tumultuous offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cunningham will officially succeed Terry Fontenot, who was fired, along with head coach Raheem Morris on Jan. 4,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1227,254,391,7,88,6,609],"class_list":{"0":"post-716150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-no-minute"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115983294442608584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}