Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears are talking to NFL about getting compensation for Ian Cunningham

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote listened and reacted to the highlights of Bears general manager Ryan Poles' press conference at the NFL Combine on Tuesday. The Bears have appealed to the NFL to get draft pick compensation for assistant general manager Ian Cunningham's departure from Chicago to become the Atlanta Falcons' new general manager.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, The Score. Happy Combine. Is that a thing? I think so? Okay. You know, you say it out loud, it doesn't always sound how you wanted to. And what's that, Ray Diaz? We have this fresh Ryan Poles audio ready to go.

Just wanted to let you know in your ear there. No expiration date. You know what? This is what we like to do on Rahimi Harris and Grosdy. We are going to be getting news all day here on the Combine real time on 104, 3. read the score. We also expect to hear from Ben Johnson in just a little bit. Thanks to our producer

Sean Sears and Tyler Buterball for also helping us out with this. In addition to Ray Diaz, so without further ado, we're going to pause when we want to react to something, but we will play Ryan pulls his comments to the media here from the combine this morning. Questions?

What's your interpretation is the NFL's one? Yeah, it's a great question. I think I kind of put that whole thing in the two buckets. One, really proud that Ian has an opportunity to be a general manager. Something we've talked about for a long time before we even employed by the Bears, it was our vision to climb through the ranks, get the seat, the GM seat, and then help the other one get to their position as well.

So I'm really happy for him. How we do that and why we do that has nothing to do with compensation whatsoever. I want to make that very clear. On the other side, there's a set of rules that were put in place. that I think can be applied to this situation. So we've communicated through the right channels, so we'll see what happens as we move forward. I'm not sure.

We'll just wait for a response. No one personally called me from the league. He and Mr. Serra said that he thinks you should and you think you should. So the bears think we should it, the Alps think you should. Yeah. So it'll be up to the league and how they see it. We've had conversations. What's your overall opinion of the rule itself?

Are your blood versus from your state? Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest. I think it is a little strange. I mean, at the end of the day, you should want to develop your staff, regardless of the color of their skin. I think that's important. I think we take a lot of pride with the bears

on how we have our setup. And I take a lot of pride in that. So to be compensated for that's a little strange. I mean, I saw the chiefs get a, pick because of me and then I watched that player go and play. It's just a little odd. But at the end of the day, if they think that's what's best to help incentivize, then that's what they wanted to do. But at the end of the day, like I said, that's not the purpose of why we develop our staff. But if that's the rule that have been placed, then I think it's very clear in the situation on

what should happen. Bravo to Ryan Poles for advocating for himself, for advocating for the Bears, and then also speaking to his personal experience. So that is Ryan Poles from the Combine. Our press conference coverage is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 the score. And right out of the gate, that's the first part of the discussion. Because as we know, this is the first time that Ryan Poles has spoken since the news of Ian Cunningham going to the Atlanta Falcons. He's listed as the general manager for people who may not know that, but Matt Ryan, who is a former college teammate of Ryan Pulse,

the former Falcons quarterback, is considered the president of football operations. So because of that, there's a lot of understanding in the NFL that the Bears will not get compensatory picks for promoting, like Ryan Pulse mentioned, his career arc coming from Kansas City, getting a promotion of running a front office.

And the rule is being selectively applied. So what do you two think? And Mark, I'll start with you, because you're not at the combine this time. I'm not. You're with us. Bears reporter Mark Grody. when you hear that from Ryan Poles, what do you think?

I love that I didn't necessarily think that this would be the route for Ryan Poles. It's been so quiet on this front, but the fact that they're having conversations in regards to an appeal regarding the compensatory picks is heartening. I don't think at the end of the day they're going to come out with anything out of this, but I do think that this is the time now to clean that up, make it more clear. make it more concise and then going forward. I don't expect them to get compensatory picks, though, still. This seemed like a layup for Ryan Poles. He knew he's going to be asked about it.

He's known for weeks he was going to be asked about this specifically, since the hiring of Ian Cunningham and the news that they weren't going to get the picks. I thought it was interesting that he wasn't given necessarily himself an explanation, but he says not necessarily a formal appeal, but that they've had conversations, which made it sound like the conversation is still going, which is a good thing, I think. You're probably right, Mark.

They're probably not going to get the picks, but exhaust every avenue to try to find out, hey, this process seems like it didn't work in the way it was intended by the way you guys set it out. Me, I can speak to this personally because I actually got a job with the bears and saw the extra players that the chiefs got. So the fact that they were on the field

tells me that you guys do give out the picks. It's not something that doesn't happen. Why is it not happening here? and, you know, we've heard the explanation, but you pair this with what Ian Cunningham said, and it seems like the NFL is getting a consistent message from both camps. Well, and that's it. Ian Cunningham also spoke at the Combine today, and he said that he thinks that that should be in place. And if you guys don't advocate for yourselves when the league has already selectively applied this rule,

you know, you're not doing yourself any favors if you don't. So credit to Ryan Pohl's, credit to Ian Cunningham, for being in their positions, The combine is as much a front office business as it is looking at potential players for the league business. You know, this is where everybody talks. What did Bragg Biggs call it? Legal tampering is done, but let's face it. We know that everybody talks about players in the NFL. Oh, yeah, lots of room to do that.

I'm not here to legislate it. I do want to let our listeners know we are going to listen to this, pause it. You'll hear the whole thing with us, but we do want to react when we hear stuff just because it's the easiest way. know, that's how we do it. So you will hear Ryan polls in the entirety throughout this hour here on 1043, the score with Rahimi, Harrison Grotie. We want to get back to it? One more thing I wanted to say from that first little part there. When Ian Cunningham first came into the building with the Chicago Bears, it felt like from day one he was being ushered out because they wanted him to get an opportunity. So it was always hilarious to me that that was,

okay, let's see every like two or three months, he and Cunningham has, you know, has heard from this team or that, or we're trying to give him the opportunity. And so get to know Jeff King because he'll probably be gone soon as well, the new assistant GM for the bear, if the Bears are to continue to succeed. Yeah, Jeff King is the director. He's, he was a director. He's now, the assistant GM.

He was the director of player personnel. And from what everybody says, and this seems to be the overall sentiment, a well-deserved promotion for him for sure. We continue our Combine Press Conference with Ryan Pulse, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on 104-3, the score. We'll see what they think. Yeah, I think there's a vision for it. I think in the next few weeks, we'll see if we can get some clarity on that,

just in terms of retaining our own. I want to see how that plays out. As I said, at the end of the season, we have more constraints now than we ever have before. We're further back in the draft from a cap standpoint. point. We've got to clear some room there. So we have to be strategic and also like I've always said it takes two to make that happen. So we want to be really smart with the guard rolls that we put up. And if it falls under that, then great. If not, then we have to pivot to the next deal. Yeah, we'll have conversations over the next, you know, probably 10 days here and see if we can make that happen.

trying to figure out ways where it's respectful. Yeah, I'm really fortunate to have Matt Feinstein. I think he's one of the best cap guys in the league. He gives us a lot of different scenarios for us to operate in, but also showing us the short-term and long-term effect of each one of those decisions. Because we want to say in that sweet spot where we have maximum amount of flexibility as we move on not only from this year, but three years down the road. I hope eventually to have a quarterback situation too where we got to pay a young quarterback.

So that comes in a play as well. I think we're getting closer and closer to clarity and that side of things, which helps us start to build those models to make sure that, again, we're doing the right thing for us moving forward and we're not put ourselves in a situation where we've got to make really tough or bad decisions down the road that hurt us. That's big. Paul's acknowledging Caleb Williams' rookie contract. Feinstein, as he mentioned, Matt Feinstein is, I think we just, what do we refer to him as the cap guy for the bears?

He's going to help try to figure out how to make contracts more flexible so the bears have more room. The elite year starts on March 11th, so they need more room under that salary cap right now, according to overthecap.com. They're about $5 million over. So that's important to keep of note here as well. Matt Feinstein, by the way, his official title on the Bears website is vice president of football administration. Well, I thought polls put it perfectly, too, that we hope to be in that position to be paying a young quarterback that they'd like to do it. And maybe he's already hinting at, let's do the restructuring of the contract before we give out the contract so we could pay other people and get more creative because it is one of the biggest issues in all. The chiefs are going through it right now with Patrick Mahomes that you can't, like when you're in that rookie contract, life is good.

but when you pay what we hope to be an elite quarterback, that's a lot of dough. Yeah, the Chiefs have gone through it for so long now. It's really been the better part of a decade that the Chiefs have been trying to figure things out because their quarterback, you know, when he got paid that half a billion dollar deal, it was like, all right, well, now every year you're going to have to figure it out. And we've seen things like the departure of Tyreek Hill. And obviously, it gets to a point, and correct me if I'm wrong, guys, but what I've seen is once you have an elite quarterback getting paid,

let's say top five, even top 10 money, you put your money in your defense and you tell your quarterback figure it out. Additionally, that's how the Bears got Joe Tooney. Joe Tooney, they had to move from Kansas City because they didn't have enough cap room to pay everyone. And they had drafted offensive linemen that were on lower parts of the depth chart in high rounds, like the second round or the first round. So because of that, yes, you know, you reap the benefits of it when you've got Caleb Williams on a rookie deal, but Patrick Mahomes' deal with the Chiefs does affect it. So for Ryan Poles to say that,

I think there's a couple pieces here that he's establishing. Number one, they already have not the best amount of cap flexibility to work with, as we mentioned. And then, number two, that contract extension, I wonder if it comes a little bit earlier than we're used to seeing, because remember, Caleb Williams was a guy who wanted to do things at this combine differently. He wanted to structure his contract. differently. Remember how long it took for he and the Bears to come to an actual contractual

agreement? So I wonder if that comes into play here sooner than we may think. I'm not saying like this year, but I'm saying perhaps maybe before even the fifth year option gets discussed. Well, that would be next off season, basically what you're talking about. And that wouldn't surprise me at all. I think everything that they do, whether it's Ryan Poles, Matt Feinstein, Jeff King, it's got to be geared to we need to make the most out of this rookie contract, but also be malleable when we know Caleb's got to get paid. And so everybody that they sign, everybody that they draft,

understanding this guy who's here right now definitely won't be here when Caleb gets paid because, well, that's just the way life is. Even if they're good and the better they play, the more money they're going to want to make. That's kind of an issue already with certain members of the secondary right now. Unless I'm missing a name

somewhere along the line here, I do believe the last time the pairs gave out a second contract was to a gentleman by the name to a quarterback, was Jay Cutler. Unless I'm missing somebody. Yeah, and they didn't even draft him. You've got to go way back. And they didn't even draft. And some people, as it turned

out, that was, I remember being for the payment of Jay Cutler in the second contract, but it didn't ultimately work out with him getting that, or was it a third come? It'd have been even been a third contract with Jay Cutler. But he's the last one that I can remember. So in other words, that would be a pretty big moment for

the Bears whenever it does come. We're going to listen to Ryan Poles for the rest of this hour, kind of react with us. If you like, you can join our conversation. 312-644-67. 67 is our number here at 104.3. The score, you can text us, and you can call us. And we're going to listen to this and also what Ben Johnson has to say,

pause it, discuss, and then reassess and evaluate, because Combine News is happening fast and furious here in Indianapolis. We heard from Brad Biggs earlier on the morning show with Mully and Haw, Ruthie Pallinsky filling in for Mully. We also heard from other people talking about what they expect the bears to do. Chris Emma will join us live from the combine at 1 o'clock, so you don't want to miss that. And in the meantime, we broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, The Score.

Our producers, Ray Diaz, Tyler Beuterbaugh, Sean Sears helping out today. And you can join us on Twitch. We have moved on Twitch. I know a lot of you guys don't know. It is Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. So you can find us there. Let everybody know because I know we changed our address on Twitch. So we are there as well.

You can join our Twitch chat. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerland help us out there. So we have a lot more to come. Don't go anywhere. We will play and continue to discuss and listen to what Ryan Poles had to say here at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis happening. Now we will listen to Ben Johnson after that. you've got 104-3, the score.