The Chicago Bears have found themselves in a rather unfamiliar position. Around this time of year, Chicago would usually be looking to make staff replacements due to firings after the season. However, following the Bears' most successful season in over a decade, Chicago now finds itself needing replacements for a different reason: staff members are receiving promotions by other teams. The most recent departure for Chicago is assistant GM Ian Cunningham.
In addition to losing Cunningham in the front office, running backs coach Eric Bieniemy accepted the Kansas City Chiefs' vacant offensive coordinator position. Current offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is also still under consideration for other offensive coordinator positions.
Cunningham has been highly regarded around the league as a GM prospect and was well deserving of landing the Falcons job. As good a job as Cunningham has done, a good portion of Bears fans wanted Cunningham to land a GM job due to the compensatory picks Chicago would receive.
However, Cunningham's role is viewed as a secondary football executive position under the Falcons' Matt Ryan. While Ryan Poles and the Bears could have blocked this request due to the lack of compensatory picks, it would have been a bad look on their end not to let Cunningham try and thrive in the position he's been working tirelessly to get.
Chicago Has No Reason to Panic Following Cunningham's Exit
Ryan Poles losing his right-hand man certainly isn't a good thing, but it doesn't have to be the end of the world. Enter Jeff King, Chicago's co-director of player personnel. King would be the obvious choice to slide into the assistant GM position for the Bears, as he is also viewed as a rising executive, and promoting from within the organization makes things easier. King has been with the Bears for about a decade now, and he has the experience necessary to fill in at Ryan Poles' side.
Poles has said how valuable King will be for the Chicago Bears organization, and now is the time to prove his worth by promoting him to assistant GM. By no means does Poles have a perfect track record as Bears general manager, but he's pieced together the needed personnel and coaching talent to set up Chicago to compete for the foreseeable future. Therefore, if Poles is as fond of King as he's said he is, then King should slot in next to Ryan Poles just as easily as Cunningham did, and the Bears front office should continue to make good decisions.