The NFL’s intransigence regarding the Bears’ plea for compensatory draft picks following the hiring of Ian Cunningham as the Falcons’ General Manager raises an interesting question.
Could another team hire Cunningham away from the Falcons as its primary football executive?
It’s a fair question. If Cunningham didn’t get a job with the Falcons that triggers the provision in the Rooney Rule that rewards a team for developing a minority candidate who becomes a General Manager with another team, he’s not really a General Manager. Another team could, in theory, hire him as a General Manager — if that G.M. job makes him the primary football executive.
That’s how the league distinguished the Saints getting a pair of third-round picks when assistant G.M. Terry Fontenot became the Falcons’ G.M. in 2021. Although Rich McKay was the Falcons’ president and CEO at the time, Fontenot became the primary football executive. This time around, Matt Ryan (the president of football) is viewed as the primary football executive.
For now, it’s a hypothetical. As soon as next month, it could become something tangible.
The Vikings will be looking for a new General Manager. If the job, as defined by the Vikings, makes the new G.M. the primary football executive, they could hire Cunningham.
It doesn’t even have to go that far to become a potential mess for the league. The Vikings could, in theory, put in a request to interview Cunningham. And the Falcons, under the league’s Rooney Rule reasoning, wouldn’t be able to say no.
We’ve asked the league for clarification of this point. But it’s hard to imagine that Cunningham wouldn’t be eligible to be interviewed or hired by the Vikings or any other team that would make him the primary football executive.
If Cunningham can’t be hired by another team as its primary football executive, the league would have created a bizarre dead zone for NFL front-office positions. It would make the job Cunningham has big enough to prevent upward mobility elsewhere, but not big enough to trigger the compensatory draft-pick provision.
Eventually, it could become an issue for the league to confront. If the Vikings don’t try to interview him next month, the question will become ripe for consideration the moment a team that is looking for a primary football executive submits a slip to the league office seeking permission from the Falcons to interview their G.M. who, per the league, isn’t really the G.M.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
The Vikings currently have four quarterbacks on the roster. There is no starter, for now.
Coach Kevin O’Connell explained during a recent visit with PFT Live that, eventually, there will be a clear delineation of positions on the depth chart.
The real question is when. He didn’t rule out the possibility of determining the starter entering training camp. That seems unlikely, however. The competition will likely commence during preseason practices and games.
The goal, as O’Connell explained it, is to have one guy lead the way throughout the season. That’s what happened in 2022, when Kirk Cousins started all 17 games, and in 2024, when Sam Darnold started all 17 games. The Vikings went 27-7 in those two seasons.
It will come down, undoubtedly, to Kyler Murray or J.J. McCarthy. O’Connell explained that he has no concern about McCarthy becoming disenchanted if he doesn’t win the job.
The best news for the Vikings is that, however it plays out, they’ll have a solid No. 2 and (if Carson Wentz makes the final 53) a third-stringer who can win games if need be. Last year, Wentz showed up less than two weeks before Week 1, and he played better than anyone could have expected. This year, he’ll be involved throughout the offseason program and training camp.
In 2025, the Vikings came within a whisker of the playoffs, despite having three different quarterbacks start games. This year, with the Vikings learning down the stretch that there are ways to win that don’t rely on a high-octane passing game, they could find a way to do better than expected.
But that’s how it’s been going for the Vikings in recent years. When the bar is low, they do well. When the bar is high, they sputter.
This year, the bar is low again. Which is exactly where they need it to be.
The Vikings have until May 1 to exercise the fifth-year option on 2023 first-round draft pick Jordan Addison. And they plan to do so.
“He’s a really important player for us, an impact player,” Vikings executive V.P. of football operations Rob Brzezinski said Monday, via Vikings.com. “We’re definitely exercising the option. For sure. The deadline for that is after the draft.”
Brzezinski’s express reference to the draft could prompt some to wonder whether Addison could be traded before or during the draft. They’re already paying Justin Jefferson $35 million per year at the position, and Addison is currently eligible for a new deal.
Addison’s fifth-year option will guarantee him a 2027 base salary of $18 million.
In three seasons, Addison has generated solid but not spectacular numbers. He had 911 receiving yards on 70 catches as a rookie, with 10 touchdowns. In 2024, that dipped to 875 yards and 63 catches, with nine receiving touchdowns. In 2025, he had only 42 catches for 610 yards and three receiving touchdowns.
His 65-yard touchdown run on Christmas clinched a win over the Lions, and ended Detroit’s playoff chances.
Addison missed the first three games of the 2025 season due to a suspension arising from a guilty plea to a DUI-related offense.
The Vikings were open to trading Jonathan Greenard this offseason, but the edge rusher remains a part of the team. Head coach Kevin O’Connell sounds as if he expects Greenard to be with the Vikings for a third season, though he didn’t completely close the door on a trade.
“Yeah, I expect him to be part of our team,” O’Connell said Monday at the NFL owners meetings. “I know there’s always conversations. There’s conversations this week. There’s conversations throughout the offseason, and we’ll continue to kind of attack things at the different phases. We’re getting ready to really jump heavily into draft meetings when we get back. But at the same time, we’re always going to try to do what’s best for our team and also what we think is best for each one of our individual players. And that’s an ongoing thing throughout every offseason.”
Greenard is set to carry a $22.15 million cap number in 2026, which is why the Vikings are open to moving him.
He is working his way back from shoulder surgery, which ended Greenard’s season after 12 games. Greenard made three sacks, 10 tackles for loss and 12 quarterback hits in 2025.
Greenard’s recovery is “on track,” O’Connell said.
“I would just say, I’m excited about Jonathan Greenard in Year 3 with us and excited about where our team’s going to go with him as a big part of our defense,” O’Connell said. “The business side of the NFL gets talked about a lot, but my role and the importance of the relationship side of things will always be paramount with all of our players, especially one of my captains like J.G.”
