Executive VP & General Manager Candidate: Ian Cunningham

Edition #759

☀️ Good morning ☕

Now that Monday is out of the way, we can go back to largely ignoring the 2024 New York Jets. At 3-10 there isn’t a lot left to say, we just need to wait for the end of the year to move on with the future.

That will include a new GM, new HC and hopefully a lot of new faces within the front office and coaching staff. At that point we’ll need to discuss the key decisions on pending free agents, contract decisions on Rodgers and Adams, Mosley too.

For now, we can largely continue our look at the names that will almost certainly be linked with turning this ship around. Of course by turning the ship I mean salvaging anything from the sunken wreckage and building a new one, you get my point.

Today I want to talk about Ian Cunningham, the Bears Assistant GM. #

🟢 I missed this yesterday but over the weekend there was a quote from Garrett Wilson about his future in NY and whether his decision to sign an extension would be impacted on whether Aaron Rodgers stays with the Jets - "No impact. No impact," Wilson told ESPN. "I've been here with Aaron, and I've been here without him. No impact.". What will impact him is the losing, and can you blame him.

⚫ Irvin Charles unfortunately left yesterday’s game with an injury which will be a huge blow to the Jets special teams unit - "Irv's had a monster year," Boyer said. "If you can find me a better special teamer in this league, I'd like to see it." Last week he faced a triple-team on a coverage snap and he beat all three to make the tackle - "In the back of my mind, I'm like, 'How can I make sure they don't do this again?' Because you have to win, right?" he said. "So I won. And after that one, they didn't do that again."

🟢 This one from Rich Cimini - “The Jets are carrying nearly $60 million in "dead" money on this year's salary cap, about 24% of the entire cap. The crazy part? The top three charges belong to players that were on teams that beat them this season -- Laken Tomlinson, Seattle Seahawks, $10.7 million; John Franklin-Myers, Denver Broncos, $9.1 million; and Zach Wilson, Broncos, $8.5 million.”

⚫ C.J Mosley has probably played his last snap for the Jets after being placed on IR. The vet played in just 4 games and forfeited his starting spot to pending free agent Jamien Sherwood. Issue with Mosley is that he carries a cap hit of $12,784,000 next year and if the Jets cut him before June 1st they’ll be hit with a dead cap hit of $16,434,000, so it would be more extensive not to have him than have him. If they designated him a post June 1st cut they’d carry $8,784,000 which gives them a saving of $4 million, but post June 1st cuts are limited and the Jets need to make big decisions on Adams and Rodgers. We’ll see how this shakes out.

Ian Cunningham was reportedly a final candidate for the Arizona GM job in 2023 before they settled on Monti Ossenfort

Last year he interviewed with the Los Angeles Chargers before they hired Joe Hortiz and was a finalist with the Washington Commanders before they hired Adam Peters.

So it’s little wonder that his name has been brought up in connection with all the expected vacant GM positions set to open this off-season, including the Jets.

Right now he’s the right hand man to Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles, a position he’s held since 2022 and despite the Bears compiling a 14-33 record over the last two and a half years, he’s remained a hotshot name in executive circles.

Cunningham a former offensive lineman at Virginia with 31 career starts to his name was picked up by the Chiefs as a UDFA in 2008, but after being cut decided to pursue his NFL career from the boardroom instead of the weight room.

"I always knew that I wanted to be in personnel," Cunningham said. "I always enjoyed building a team, constructing a roster, finding the pieces of the puzzle that fit."