ATLANTA — The Atlanta Falcons added the final piece to their new leadership team Thursday night by hiring Ian Cunningham as the franchise’s next general manager.
The decision came after president of football Matt Ryan led the team’s second interviews with Cunningham and James Liipfert earlier in the day.
Cunningham, 40, previously interviewed for the president of football position before Ryan, the former longtime Falcons quarterback, was hired for the newly created front-office role. Ryan then led the search for new head coach Kevin Stefanski, who — along with Cunningham — will report to Ryan.
“It was evident through our rigorous interview process Ian was the right choice for our general manager position,” Ryan said in a released statement. “His vision for our team and organization aligned exactly with the type of leader we were seeking to help take the Falcons to the next level.”
Falcons owner Arthur Blank fired general manager Terry Fontenot after five years and coach Raheem Morris after two years on Jan. 4, hours after Atlanta’s finale to an 8-9 season and its eighth straight campaign without reaching the NFL playoffs.
Cunningham has served as the Chicago Bears’ assistant general manager for the past four years. He previously spent five seasons in various scouting and player personnel roles with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Cunningham’s family lived in Roswell, which is near Atlanta, before moving to Carrollton, Texas, where he attended high school.
“As a Falcons fan growing up in Roswell when the Dirty Birds were rolling, the Braves were on fire and the city was hosting the Summer Olympics, I lived the passion of Atlanta sports fans and I can’t wait to be part of bringing that fire and energy back to the city,” Cunningham said.
“It’s been incredible to build a relationship with Matt over the last several weeks and to have an immediate connection with Kevin. I can’t wait to work with both of these great football minds to put a team on the field everyone will be very excited about. We all share the same vision for what the Atlanta Falcons should and will be and it’s time to work.”
Ryan said Cunningham “has demonstrated the drive and focus it takes to build championship contenders and put them in the position to win games. We love his broad and deep experience across every aspect of talent evaluation and know he’s learned from some of the best in the league. Pairing him with coach Stefanski is exciting for us, and we can’t wait to see them bring our shared vision to life in everything we do starting right now.”
Cunningham’s first NFL front-office role was in Baltimore, where he was a player personnel assistant for the Ravens for five seasons.
Liipfert, a Georgia native who was a walk-on linebacker at Georgia Tech two decades ago, has been the assistant GM for the Houston Texans since 2025. He was Houston’s director of college scouting for seven seasons before that.
The Falcons also interviewed Mike Bradway, Joe Douglas, Andy Weidl and Josh Williams for the GM job. Williams was also considered for president of football.