Falcons GM Ian Cunningham on having just 5 draft picks: ‘That’s the hand that we were dealt’

The previous administration in Atlanta left the current regime lacking. The Falcons head toward the 2026 NFL Draft with just five picks to rebuild a team that hasn’t been to the postseason since 2017.

New GM Ian Cunningham isn’t pouting about the situation but would like to add more if the opportunity arises.

“For us, it’s one of those things where we have to go into this thinking we only have five picks. That’s worst case,” Cunningham said via the team’s official website. “If we come out of it with just five picks, we come out of it with just five picks. We are already looking at different ways to potentially manufacture some more. But if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”

The Falcons currently have a second-round pick, a third-rounder, fourth, sixth and a seventh-rounder. Atlanta did not receive any compensatory selections.

The ousted brass traded away this year’s first-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for the right to draft James Pearce Jr., who has recently been charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor. They shipped their fifth-rounder to Philadelphia last year to select third-rounder Xavier Watts. The fourth and sixth round picks are also lower after the trade for safety Sydney Brown last month.

The lack of draft picks led to Cunningham and crew being active in free agency, particularly the second and third waves, signing 17 new players. Most of those were of the depth/rotational variety to make up for the lack of picks to be used on depth this season.

“That’s the hand that we were dealt,” Cunningham said, “but we are going to try to figure out ways moving forward to create more opportunities, more swings at the plate moving forward.”

Cunningham can’t change the past. He signed on in Atlanta, knowing the draft capital had been depleted. If the opportunity arises to move down the board during the draft to recoup more picks, the GM would jump at the chance. In the future, he would like to ensure Atlanta isn’t in a position to make five draft picks, preferring to build through the draft rather than free agency.

“Moving forward, you don’t want to live in that space,” Cunningham said of the Falcons’ activity in free agency. “You would like for your draft picks to eventually take the place of those things, but this was a year where we had to attack it this way.”