Chargers general manager candidate profile: Ian Cunningham

For the first time in a decade, the Chargers are searching for a new general manager.

Tom Telesco and head coach Brandon Staley were fired on December 15, ushering in a new era of football in one half of SoFi Stadium. Telesco, hired in 2013 as the youngest general manager in franchise history, brought the team to just three playoff appearances and two wins.

So, who could be next?

Bears Assistant General Manager Ian Cunningham

The son of a basketball agent and cousin of tennis player Arthur Ashe, Cunningham started 31 games at Virginia as a center and guard before signing with the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent. As a Cavalier, he played under coach Al Groh, who had spent time as an assistant under Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells, and Nick Saban, among others. Groh put Cunningham in touch with Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome, who hired the 23-year-old as a player personnel assistant in 2008, the same year Baltimore hired John Harbaugh.

Over the next eight years, Cunningham climbed the ranks in Baltimore, becoming the Southeast area scout for the team in 2013 and adding the Southwest area starting in 2015. A move to Philadelphia in 2017 earned him a promotion to director of college scouting and a second Super Bowl ring while working under Howie Roseman. Cunningham was promoted to assistant director of player personnel in 2019 and director of player personnel in 2021, a position he held for just a year before being hired as the assistant general manager for the Bears under Ryan Poles.

The 38-year-old Cunningham also declined the Cardinals GM opening that eventually went to Monti Ossenfort last season. In Tennessee, Cunningham was the runner-up to new general manager Ran Carthon during the Titans’ search in 2023. Earlier this week, Cunningham also lost out on the Commanders front office opening to 49ers assistant GM Adam Peters. Later that day, Daniel Popper of The Athletic reported that Cunningham would interview with the Chargers on January 14th.

In 2020, while serving as assistant director of player personnel in Philadelphia, Cunningham was named to The Athletic’s 40 Under 40 list, which tabbed him as one of the “few minority candidates in the GM pipeline.” In a 2022 interview with the Bears media team about his role as assistant GM, Cunningham said that his responsibilities included “free agent meetings, draft meetings, operations, sports science, strength, and conditioning.”

With those responsibilities in mind, it’s reasonable to evaluate Cunningham to some degree on what Chicago has done in the draft and free agency over the past two seasons. In 2022, Chicago found a starting offensive tackle, Southern Utah’s Braxton Jones, in the fifth round. They supplemented that choice with ten other selections, including starting secondary members Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker. This year, the Bears found their other starting tackle, first-rounder Darnell Wright, and Miami’s Tyrique Stevenson at cornerback and Texas running back Roschon Johnson.

Chicago has had a rocky record in the trade market, however. The Bears sent Roquan Smith to Baltimore for draft capital, only to see Smith continue his All-Pro level play as one of the best linebackers in the league. They traded the 33rd overall pick in 2022 for Chase Claypool. But they’ve also shown a willingness to move around on draft night, sliding down a spot from 9 to 10, likely thanks to Cunningham’s connections in Philadelphia. They traded up in the second for Stevenson, then sent another second later in the year for Montez Sweat, who immediately took Chicago’s defense a step forward.

Around the league, Cunningham is seen as one of the foremost general manager candidates on the market. The Athletic reported in relation to the Commanders job that he and Peters were considered the most sought-after candidates this cycle. That report also cites Cunningham’s “ability to marry traditional player evaluation with analytics” as a major draw. That should be especially appealing to a Chargers organization that often felt constrained by Telesco’s traditional vision for how to build a team.

When reporting Cunningham’s interview scheduled for Sunday, Popper wrote that “interest on both sides” was in Chicago’s assistant general manager coming to Los Angeles as the headman. The 38-year-old would break Telesco’s record as the youngest GM in franchise history, with an influx of new ideas about how to win in the modern NFL. He also has ties to oft-rumored Chargers head coaching target Jim Harbaugh through his brother John, the head coach of the Ravens while Cunningham was working his way up the ladder.