Falcons pick Ian Cunningham to become general manager

Cunnigham, who played at Virginia, signed as an undrafted offensive lineman with the Chiefs in 2008, where his locker was next to Tony Gonzalez’s. He was waived before the start of the season and that was the end of road, after starting 31 games at Virginia, where he was honorable-mention freshman All-America.

He chose a post-playing career route, and he wanted to get into football personnel.

Cunningham reached out to then-Virginia coach Al Groh, who put him in touch with three people, including Ozzie Newsome, who is the Ravens’ executive vice president of player personnel. Groh had coached in the NFL with Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and Nick Saban.

Newsome, the Hall of Fame tight end who starred for the Browns from 1978-90, was the Ravens’ general manager. He met Cunningham and hired him as his 23-year-old personal assistant.

Normally, the personnel assistants spend a year in the college ranks as a graduate assistant, working in recruiting.

Newsome has been instrumental in Cunningham’s growth.

“The reason why I’m here is because of Ozzie,” Cunningham told Bears.com in 2022.

Newsome, considered one of the best talent evaluators in the league, taught Cunninham how to have a discerning eye for talent.

At the end of each day, Cunningham would go into Newsome’s office to discuss the day’s transactions and scouting. Cunningham tried to learn as much as he could from Newsome and the rest of the front office.

Cunningham started to move up the ranks with the Ravens. He was an area scout from 2012-16 after five seasons as a player personnel assistant.

He went to the Eagles in 2017 as their director of college scouting (2017-18), assistant director of player personnel (2019-20) and then director of player personnel (2021)

While at Virginia, Cunningham earned a psychology degree in 20007 and master’s degree in education in 2008. He believes that studying psychology has helped in his roles in the NFL.

When Ryan Poles became the Bears general manager in January 2022, he hired Cunninham four days later as his assistant general manager. With Cunningham in place, Poles could be at peace about the evaluation process if he got pulled in other directions.

Cunningham has run free-agent meetings, draft meetings, operations, sports science and strength and conditioning to assist Poles, who played on the offensive line at Boston College and is friends with Matt Ryan, and the Bears.

Cunningham’s father, Louis, and his father’s first cousin, tennis legend Arthur Ashe, were influential in his life.

Louis Cunningham worked as a sport agents with the firm (ProServ) that represented NBA stars Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Dominique Wilkins before serving as the vice president of marketing for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the athletic director at Alabama A&M.

The elder Cunningham grew up like a little brother to Ashe, the only Black man to win a singles titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. Ashe passed away in 1993 but continues to inspire Cunningham.

In addition to Cunningham, the Falcons interviewed Texans assistant general manager James Liipfert, Steelers assistant general manager Andy Weidl, 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams and Chiefs assistant general manager Mike Bradway.