What would you do if your company paid a bonus when a minority employee got promoted, but you, the employer, questioned why the bonus needed to exist at all? That’s the uncomfortable spot Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles found himself in at the NFL Combine this week. And his answer cut straight to the heart of the matter.

“At the end of the day, you should want to develop your staff regardless of the color of their skin,” Poles said in his interview. “I think that’s important. We take a lot of pride with the Bears on how we are set up, and I take a lot of pride in that.”

Poles took notable points at the Rooney Rule compensatory pick system, which awards two third-round picks to teams developing minority executives hired away as head coaches or primary football decision makers. It’s a blunt take from a man who has lived this rule from both sides. When Poles left the Kansas City Chiefs for Chicago’s GM role in 2022, the Chiefs collected a compensatory third-round pick.

“To be compensated for that’s a little strange,” Poles noted. “I saw the Chiefs get a pick because of me, and then I watched that player go and play.”

That full-circle experience gives him a vantage point few GMs possess: the rule he once triggered is now blocking his own team from getting what it deserves.

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Former assistant GM Ian Cunningham departed Chicago in January to become the Atlanta Falcons’ GM. It was a milestone that Poles had every reason to celebrate for his colleague. Under Resolution JC-2A, introduced back in 2020, Chicago should theoretically be eligible for two third-round picks. Poles confirmed that he’s pushed through the proper channels to get this compensation. But he hasn’t received an answer from the league.

“On the other side there’s a set of rules that were put in place that I think can be applied to this situation,” Poles said. “So, we’ve communicated through the right channels. So we’ll see what happens as we move forward.”

But Atlanta had notably built a workaround to the Rooney Rule. Before finalizing Cunningham’s hire, the Falcons created a new position for franchise icon Matt Ryan as president of football, technically placing Ryan above Cunningham in the hierarchy.

The rule is explicit: compensation applies only to the ‘primary football executive.’ With Ryan above him in title, Cunningham doesn’t qualify. What’s more, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin confirmed that the decision “isn’t something a team can appeal.”

So the Bears are left holding nothing except a telling contradiction. Because the man who took the job thinks that Chicago deserves those picks.

Ian Cunningham’s take on the compensatory picks

While Ryan Poles waits to hear from the league about the picks, Ian Cunningham, whose exit started this conversation, has offered his own perspective. At the NFL Combine, Cunningham expressed his surprise at the Bears getting snubbed.

“I’m the general manager,” Cunningham said. “I was hired. I would think that they would get two third-round picks.”

Cunningham further explained that he didn’t know what the fine print said. But he also added that he wouldn’t have gotten the Atlanta job if the Bears hadn’t invested in him in the first place. 

“I don’t know the wording of it. That’s just my perspective,” Cunningham added. “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.”

But sentiment and eligibility operate in different languages. Cunningham is making the calls in Atlanta, having already moved to release Kirk Cousins in his first major act as GM.

Ryan Poles has questioned a rule that, by design, incentivizes something every franchise should already be doing. Cunningham wants his former team rewarded. But the NFL’s loophole swallows both points whole. The Bears wait; two picks lighter and two hard lessons wiser about how the league’s own rulebook can be gamed.