After losing Ian Cunningham to the Atlanta Falcons general manager job, the only notable move the Chicago Bears made in response was promoting Jeff King to become the new assistant general manager. It wasn’t a surprise. King had been a rising star inside Halas Hall over the past couple of years, earning the respect and trust of general manager Ryan Poles. Outside of that, nothing else happened. Most expected the Bears to maintain the status quo across their scouting department and front office.
That turned out not to be the case. News has surfaced in the past few days that the team has done some reshuffling of its talent evaluation groups. It started when Nick Papagno, their combine scout of the past two years, was promoted to take over the Midlands region as an area scout. This covers the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas.
It didn’t stop there. Several more moves soon followed. Jeff Shiver, the team’s ageless scout who’s been with the team for decades, was promoted to Senior Executive Scout. One of their national scouts, Breck Ackley, was elevated to Director of Player Personnel. Trey Koziol, who’d be a Co-Director of Player Personnel alongside King, was promoted to Senior Director of Player Personnel. Lastly, Andrea White has become the team’s new Football Administration & Analytics Manager.
The Chicago Bears have established a clearer pecking order.
Now there is no debate about who is involved in the succession plan; should one of the team’s top executives be plucked, as Cunningham was? Don’t forget that King received interest for GM positions a couple of years ago. The Bears’ success last season is almost certain to have elevated his profile. Now the team has a plan in place for if and when that happens. Koziol is next in line behind King. After that, it appears Ackley is positioning himself for advancement. That is certainly a fun story.
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Ackley was a college coach at first after his playing career ended. However, in 2012, he joined the Bears as an area scout. The first three seasons were spent in the Midwest before he transitioned to the Southwest. He would remain there for the next eight seasons. His work earned him a promotion to Assistant Director of College Scouting in 2023 and then Director of College Scouting in 2024. His winning of the BART Award, which pinpoints the best scouts in the NFL, was a sign that the Bears had found a good one. Giving him more authority should only improve their talent evaluation process.
One thing remains clear about the Bears.
They are very much an insular organization. While other franchises often bring in scouts or executives from elsewhere to supplement their building, the Chicago Bears have gone in the other direction. They prefer building from within, rewarding scouts who excel with advancement up the chain. It certainly fosters a great deal of loyalty inside Halas Hall and makes it easier for everybody to be on the same page. The trade-off is that it can be difficult to find competing voices at times, which is necessary if the evaluation of a certain player is flawed.
Whatever the case, the Bears are clearly happy with how things are constructed. Head coach Ben Johnson certainly doesn’t have any issues. He is the one with final authority over the roster. If he wanted changes, he could get them. Instead, he seems to trust these men to identify the types of players he prefers. Based on how the 2025 draft went last season, he has good reasons to do so. If the 2026 class produces similar results, it may not be long before others are poached.
