The NFL has blame here, but it's not isolated and in a vacuum, or random. The most significant stakeholder org on diversity matters that the league works with, Fritz Pollard Alliance, was specifically taking issue with these Ryan type roles falling outside of the diversity rules.
Insert NFLs solution : Matt Ryan is Primary Exec. This placates issue one, and since no team blocked the GM request, we'll see if FPA takes any issue with the GM being secondary exec. My sense would be no, but we'll see. I dint think FPA cares about the picks.
But my gripe with NFL is really two fold. (1) Letting Tennessee get out of questions last year about a similar structure, and arguably sweeping under rug that they promoted Brinker without a search, and (2) not proactively expanding scope to address this and instead addressing it by looping it into existing rules.
But Bears knew what was happening the entire time. If they thought after the fact appeals would be effective, they are foolish. I don't take issue with how they handled, but realistically it just was never gonna end up in picks.