NFL officially screws over the Bears regarding the Ian Cunningham compensatory draft pick situation
The Chicago Bears were not awarded the two third-round compensator draft picks.
When Chicago Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham was hired to become the next general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, the conversation around the move centered on the wrong discussion.
Instead of praising Cunningham for earning a well-deserved promotion and the chance to run his own team, everyone was more interested in whether or not the Bears would receive compensatory draft picks for developing a minority candidate into a general manager role.
The initial belief was that the answer would be no, with the reasoning being that Matt Ryan, the Falcons’ new president of football, was supposedly to be the primary football executive in Atlanta, not Cunningham. It turned into a heated debate that overshadowed the hire itself.
“How we do that and why we do that has nothing to do with compensation whatsoever,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said at the NFL Combine. “I want to make that very clear. On the other side, there’s a set of rules that were put in place that I think can be applied to this situation. We’ve communicated through the right channels. So we’ll see what happens as we move forward.”
NFL officially makes the wrong decision by not awarding the Bears with compensatory picks
The NFL has finally released the full list of compensatory draft picks for the 2026 NFL Draft and finally put this situation to bed. The Bears will not be getting their comp picks for losing Cunningham, which could have been a third-round selection in each of the next two drafts.
Everyone in Atlanta has been straightforward about who does what in the organization and made it known that Cunningham is making the executive decisions as the team’s general manager.
“I’m the general manager, I was hired, I would think they would get two third-round picks,” Cunningham said at the NFL Combine. “I don’t know the wording of it, that’s just my perspective. Again, I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now.”
This is absolutely an awful call by the league. The Bears, by the wording of the rule, deserved these selections. The purpose of the rule continues to be called into question, and rightfully so.
“I mean I’ll be honest, I think it is a little strange,” Poles added. “At the end of the day, you should want to develop your staff regardless of the color of their skin. I think that is important. I think we take a lot of pride with the Bears in our setup and I take a lot of pride in that. So to be compensated for that is a little strange. I saw the Chiefs get a pick because of me and then I watched that player go and play. It’s just a little odd. But if at the end of the day, they think that’s what is best to help incentivize, then that’s what they want to do.”
Bears current 2026 draft picks after not getting the third-round comp pick
The rule is the rule and you can have whatever feelings you want about it. But, the Bears will miss out on not having the extra third-round pick in the next two drafts. After not getting the comp pick for 2026, here’s the team’s current war chest going into April’s draft.
- Round 1, pick 25
- Round 2, pick 57
- Round 2, pick 60
- Round 3, pick 89
- Round 4 pick
- Round 7 pick
- Round 7 pick
That’s still quite the haul to work with and knowing Poles, the Bears will surely be moving back at some point by the time we get to late April to acquire more selections in the fifth-sixth round range.
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