Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
NFL officially rules Bears won't get draft pick compensation for Ian Cunningham's exit
03 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What recent NFL ruling affects the Bears' draft pick compensation?
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score, and we have developing news. This is per Brad Biggs. Maybe you guys have heard of him. His name is Biggsie. Yeah, he talks football with you.
He does.
So this is per Brad Biggs earlier. NFL announced that the Bears will not receive compensatory picks. It is over. Quote, the matter is now closed following the club's appeal. The 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 and did not fill that role with the falcons as it is defined in league rules because matt ryan has the word football in his title that's that's really what we're getting at here right it's one word i guess it's the most important word But this was a situation that had happened previously.
Because the Saints and the Falcons had the same progression happen, and the Saints got their picks.
Because the guy that was the boss did not have the word football in his title. That's really what this comes down to. It is a technicality. And it's unfortunate... I get it, and I also recognized early on, it's the freaking NFL.
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Chapter 2: Why won't the Bears receive compensatory picks for Ian Cunningham's exit?
They never back off anything. They just say what they say, and they say, whether you like it or not, this is the way it is because I said so.
Well, I think the other part of it too is, and you used the word correctly, the technicality. The reason that I think that the NFL was ultimately, even if the NFL is like thinking, okay, pretty good point. You kind of got us here. Maybe we should give up. There's just enough gray area to it.
There is just enough technicality to it that they can't have this every single year where there is a team and maybe they need to tighten up the language of it and redefine it in the offseason. which is right now. But for now, they can't have all, like, 29 other teams saying, oh, well, here. Here's our little gray area. Here's our thing.
They couldn't set this precedent, in other words, with the Chicago Bears, even if the Chicago Bears are right. even though the Bears did everything right in terms of hiring and developing and helping to get a minority candidate hired with another franchise.
So the Bears did it all right, but just enough gray area that they don't want to have to have this little shuffle with all the other teams that say, hey, why aren't we getting our picks?
I also want to remind people this does fall under the classification of a DEI policy. And I don't know if you heard, but DEI is under attack at the federal government level and in some states as well. And this is something now that the NFL doesn't have to deal with from anyone who might, I don't know, send off a social media post decrying what's going on in the NFL.
What's the address?
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Oh, okay. Look that up on the computer, Layla. Let's find out where that is.
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Chapter 3: What technicalities influenced the NFL's decision on draft picks?
Yeah, or what's there.
Yeah, who's there, what's there, what's happening there. What's going on? What you been got going on there?
Is that your version of when'd you get in?
When'd you get in? What you been got going on? No, that should be attributed to Dan McNeil once said that. What you been got going on or something like that.
That's amazing.
Yeah, it really was.
I think we all saw this coming. But appropriately, the Bears were going to do everything they possibly could in order to make sure that they at least stood their ground and at least asked for them.
You know, another frustrating part of this, Mark, and you weren't here when we had the latest development, and it's why we were talking about it, is because earlier at the owners' meetings, we heard from Kevin Warren appropriately and George McCaskey appropriately on this topic, and they said they were going to try to talk to the NFL or at least appeal.
George McCaskey is on one of the committees the inclusion committee and you'd think that that would help in this scenario we talk about how if you're on the competition committee as an owner as a as a notary official of your team a representative that it helps you we know that with the competition committee why do they even have that committee if they're going to be this way
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Chapter 4: How does the Bears' situation compare to past cases with other teams?
We would like further explanation, and they got further explanation.
But I think that's all they were expecting, and I think that's all they were aiming for, because I think they knew they were not going to get the picks.
And it's funny because for every, why are you still talking about this? We have three other responses that say people need to keep talking about this. Like look at the replies to Brad Biggs post on Twitter. And you can see this is something that is very top of mind to bears fans because it's not right.
And even in the composite mark at the owner's meetings, who's standing representing the Falcons. It's Ian Cunningham in the GM pack.
Yeah. And my partner on Take the North, Dan Wiederer, has written about it, has talked about it on the radio, has talked about it on the podcast. He is right. Some of this is just Bears fans, not because they care about DEI, not because they care about minority hiring, because they want the damn draft picks, because they want the Bears to have more draft picks. So there is...
that contingency does exist and trust me like this is like for people who are tired of it i do get it because it seems just when you think it's over it's not over it's over it's not over it's continuing on of course we're going to report it and we are going to talk about it but i do understand that some people that are confused like i thought this thing was over um and it never really is i think it's over now but who knows oh no this matter is closed that that's over well i thought
Didn't we think it was?
We thought this a month ago.
I got very, the masses ended, you may go in peace vibes from that Brad Biggs post. I'm not going to lie.
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