![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2195340672-1024x683.jpg\")
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Bears chairman George McCaskey was part of the team’s an in-person appeal in New York, but the NFL wasn’t swayed from its original decision. Michael Reaves \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
April 3, 2026 12:39 pm EDT<\/p>\n
The Chicago Bears won\u2019t be getting any compensatory draft picks for Ian Cunningham\u2019s jump to become general manager of the Atlanta Falcons after four years as Ryan Poles\u2019 assistant GM at Halas Hall.<\/p>\n
The NFL on Friday rejected the Bears\u2019 appeal of the original decision. Had it been successful, the Bears would have picked up a third-round pick in this month\u2019s NFL Draft and another in next year\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe matter is now closed following the club\u2019s appeal,\u201d the league said in a statement. \u201cThe 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 League determined Mr. Cunningham did not fill that role with the Falcons as it is defined in League rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poles, Bears chairman George McCaskey and president\/CEO Kevin Warren made their appeal in person at the league office in New York. The Bears argued that under Resolution JC-2A, a diversity-driven provision to distribute draft picks to franchises that develop minority personnel into head coaches and GMs, they were entitled to the compensation in the spirit and intent of the policy. But the NFL confirmed that it considers Atlanta\u2019s primary football executive to be Matt Ryan, who was hired by the Falcons earlier this offseason to their newly created position of president of football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we made a pretty compelling case,\u201d McCaskey said Wednesday at the NFL\u2019s annual league meeting at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Cunningham handled all of his team\u2019s GM duties at the spring meeting, similar to many of his counterparts. Plus, as Bears fans adamantly pointed out, Cunningham was the Falcons\u2019 representative in the annual GM photo. Ryan, his supervisor, was not.<\/p>\n
The matter is now moot, and the Bears will continue preparations for this month\u2019s draft, in which they own seven selections, including four in the top 90.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Apr 3, 2026<\/p>\n
Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n
Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n
Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bears chairman George McCaskey was part of the team’s an in-person appeal in New York, but the NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,391,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116341826591850103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851577","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=851577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}