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Bears’ Ian Cunningham grateful for career experiences on hopeful path to GM originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham has been a hot name on the general manager free agent market over the past two offseasons.
Cunningham has interviewed for general manager positions with the Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans and Los Angeles Chargers in the past two years. He failed to lock down one of those GM positions. But he’s due for the keys to his own team soon.
“It feels great in the sense of this is what I’ve worked for my entire life and career,” Cunningham told The Athletic. “Knowing what I’ve wanted to do since I was in middle school, high school and setting that goal for myself. … Realizing I’m on the cusp of that, I’m extremely fortunate to have the interviews in which I’ve had and the opportunities in which I’ve had. I just view it as just keep chopping, and it’ll happen in the right time.”
Like his partner Ryan Poles, Cunningham was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Chiefs coming out of college. But he soon realized his professional football career likely wouldn’t take him far, unless he was in the front office.
According to The Athletic, Cunningham’s college coach, Al Groh, went to work on his behalf trying to get him a front-office position somewhere. Within 24 hours, Groh helped Cunningham snag a personnel internship with the Ravens under legendary GM Ozzie Newsome.
In 2013, Cunningham was elevated to personnel scout. He spent nine years in the Ravens organization, and the team made the playoffs in six of those years. In 2017, the Eagles hired Cunningham as their director of college scouting. They soon won the Super Bowl that season, as Cunningham then won the second of his career.
Cunningham became the Eagles’ director of player personnel in 2021. In 2022, followed Poles to the Bears to become his assistant general manager. But Cunningham couldn’t be more grateful for having the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/bears-ian-cunningham-grateful-career-224327880.html
Author : NBC Sports Chicago
Publish date : 2024-08-22 22:43:27
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