What to know about new Falcons GM Ian Cunningham

Cunningham was viewed as the favorite from the moment the position came open, in part because of his ties to Matt Ryan, who was named the Falcons’ President of Football earlier in the offseason. Cunningham served under Bears GM Ryan Poles, a close friend of Ryan’s dating back to their college days as teammates at Boston College.

That said, Cunningham didn’t land this job simply because of those connections. He’s widely regarded as one of the top up-and-coming executives in the league, with a strong résumé that speaks for itself. His career began in Baltimore, where he worked as an assistant and area scout from 2008–2016 and helped the Ravens win a Super Bowl. He later won another Super Bowl with the Eagles before joining Chicago as assistant general manager, playing a key role alongside Poles in overseeing a massive — and successful — rebuild.

“It was evident through our rigorous interview process Ian was the right choice for our general manager position,” Matt Ryan said. “His vision for our team and organization aligned exactly with the type of leader we were seeking to help take the Falcons to the next level. Throughout Ian’s career, including Super Bowl championships in Baltimore and Philadelphia, Ian has demonstrated the drive and focus it takes to build championship contenders and put them in the position to win games. We love his broad and deep experience across every aspect of talent evaluation and know he’s learned from some of the best in the league. Pairing him with Coach Stefanski is exciting for us, and we can’t wait to see them bring our shared vision to life in everything we do starting right now.”

Another interesting fact about Cunningham: he’s from Roswell, Georgia, as his dad was the VP of Marketing for the 1996 summer Olympics.

“It’s truly an honor to be the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons and I couldn’t be more thankful to Arthur Blank, Matt Ryan, Greg Beadles, Josh Blank and the entire search committee for believing in me,” Cunningham said. “As a Falcons fan growing up in Roswell when the Dirty Birds were rolling, the Braves were on fire and the city was hosting the Summer Olympics, I lived the passion of Atlanta sports fans and I can’t wait to be part of bringing that fire and energy back to the city. It’s been incredible to build a relationship with Matt over the last several weeks and to have an immediate connection with Kevin. I can’t wait to work with both of these great football minds to put a team on the field everyone will be very excited about. We all share the same vision for what the Atlanta Falcons should and will be and it’s time to work.”

The Falcons have now put three major pillars in place, all of whom are held in extremely high regard around the league. Coaches and executives were eager to work alongside Matt Ryan. Kevin Stefanski arrives in Atlanta with multiple Coach of the Year awards on his résumé, and Ian Cunningham has found success in every role he’s held at the NFL level.

The future remains uncertain, but at the very least, the process that brought the Falcons to this point has been far cleaner and more deliberate than anything the organization experienced over the past half-decade under Arthur Smith, Raheem Morris, and Terry Fontenot.