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  • Shapiro’s ICE balancing act | Morning Newsletter

    Shapiro’s ICE balancing act | Morning Newsletter

    Hi, Philly. So far, Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction seems accurate as the snow, ice, and freezing temperatures persist. There’s even a chance of a fresh frosting overnight.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is increasingly critical of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operation in Minneapolis. Critics point out his administration still cooperates with the agency.

    And a lawsuit challenging the legality of a special-admissions process at magnet and other criteria-based city schools was revived by a panel of federal judges this week. The policy’s constitutionality is in question.

    — Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

    P.S. A heads-up to the urban drivers among us: The Philadelphia Parking Authority is resuming parking regulation enforcement and towing today after a pause for last week’s snowstorm. The city also needs all parked vehicles moved from South Broad Street between Washington and Oregon avenues before 7 a.m. for a snow removal operation.

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    Ramped-up rhetoric

    Gov. Shapiro has avoided fights over immigration for much of the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. But after the fatal shootings in Minneapolis, he’s jumping into the fray.

    The centrist Democrat has ramped up his anti-Trump rhetoric since federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month, especially during his author tour to promote his new memoir.

    Still, immigrant rights groups in Pennsylvania say they want to see Shapiro do more by ending all cooperation with ICE. His administration currently honors ICE detainers in state prisons and allows the agency access to state databases.

    Notable quote: “It’s easy for him to point the finger to somebody else, but then what is he doing at home?” a local advocate said of Shapiro’s criticism of the federal operation in Minnesota.

    Politics reporters Katie Bernard and Gillian McGoldrick have the story.

    In other gubernatorial news:

    School admissions policy back in court

    A lawsuit challenging the legality of Philadelphia schools’ special-admissions process was revived Monday by a federal appeals panel, who ruled it could be unconstitutional and discriminatory.

    The initial lawsuit in 2022 was brought forth by a trio of Philly parents, who sued the district to end a new policy that changed the way it admits students to criteria-based schools. A federal judge tossed the case in 2024.

    This latest legal move could have long-term implications for the district if the case now proceeds to trial.

    Reporters Kristen A. Graham and Abraham Gutman have more details.

    More on education: Broken heat and burst pipes left some students shivering in Philadelphia schools on Monday, while others learned virtually from home. Four schools were dismissed early because of the cold conditions.

    What you should know today

    Quote of the day

    It’s a busy moment for the Sixers, with the upcoming trade deadline, Tyrese Maxey’s turn as breakout star, and rookie VJ Edgecombe’s rise. Of course, fans say, because it’s the Sixers, something had to go wrong.

    🏆 Plus: Philly sports has seen many eras, but which one has been the best? Was it the early 1980s? Maybe the early 2000s? What about the 2020s? Is there a time that has been overlooked? Reply to this email to share your thoughts on which era was best and why for a chance to be featured in a future story.

    🧠 Trivia time

    Some Regional Rail trains have a new look due to an effort from the transit agency to alleviate overcrowding. What is different about them?

    A) They are all NextGen Acela trains

    B) Their seats have been removed

    C) They bear “MARC” logos

    D) They have wider doors

    Think you know? Check your answer.

    What we’re …

    🍴 Congratulating: The winners of The Tasties, Philly’s homegrown culinary awards.

    🏡 Peeping: Muhammad Ali’s former Cherry Hill mansion, now back on the market.

    🍦 Anticipating: This weekend’s return of Zsa’s Ice Cream in Mount Airy under a new owner.

    🥶 Noting: The signs of a frozen housing market in Philadelphia and Delaware County.

    🎙️ Considering: Black media’s role in centering Black history, culture, and community.

    🧩 Unscramble the anagram

    Hint: Coffee chain

    BASS TRUCK

    Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.

    Cheers to Betsy Flannery, who solved Monday’s anagram: Reclectic. URBN’s discount store is moving from the Franklin Mall to a larger space in the Willow Grove Park Mall this month.

    Photo of the day

    Melissa Krakower (left) and her daughter Lindsay Krakower carry their tubes back to the top of the hill while sledding in Rose Tree County Park in Delaware County Tuesday.

    Enjoy your snow-capped Tuesday. See you back here tomorrow.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • Black media: Our voice is our most potent weapon and our most sacred sanctuary

    Black media: Our voice is our most potent weapon and our most sacred sanctuary

    Black media matters. Right here, right now, and more than ever before. We are the essential workers on the front lines of a growing resistance movement.

    As the owner and operator of WURD Radio, Philadelphia’s only multiplatform Black talk radio station, my team and I are focused on a singular mission: fighting back against this administration’s attempt to destroy Black history, culture, institutions, and people. We provide our communities with our most powerful weapon: trusted, accurate, culturally specific information.

    The recent arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, two independent Black journalists, underscores the lengths this government will go to silence dissent — which, by the way, is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

    The Black press has been fighting a system that has sought to weaken our institutions, marginalize our reporting, and underfund our organizations for centuries. And frankly, for too long, mainstream media has been complicit in maintaining that system of devastating racial oppression.

    Throughout history, the mainstream media has been complicit in maintaining the system of racial oppression by focusing on and reinforcing negative narratives about African Americans, writes Sara Lomax.

    In the 1800s, newspapers profited by running ads to capture enslaved Africans, and throughout history, they‘ve reinforced the caricatures and negative narratives used to justify a racial hierarchy.

    In this new era, it feels as though we are slipping back in time, forced to fight battles we thought were won. The quest for newsroom diversity in mainstream media, for example. The brief glimmer of self-awareness that followed the murder of George Floyd — when pledges were made to hire more reporters of color, diversify sources, and commit to nuanced coverage — was tragically short-lived.

    But if you are Black in America, you know the drill: Racial progress is always followed by a wicked backlash. Now is no different.

    Still, we look to our history for the blueprint of our survival.

    We draw strength from Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm, who founded Freedom’s Journal, the first Black newspaper, in 1827. They advocated for the full humanity of Black people nearly 40 years before slavery was abolished nationwide. Imagine the courage and tenacity it took for two Black men to start a newspaper in a country that said it was illegal — in some places, punishable by death or maiming — to read and write.

    Ida B. Wells-Barnett, in a photograph by Mary Garrity from c. 1893.

    I am inspired by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who used the power of her pen to expose the barbaric practice of lynching through the Red Record. She traveled the country with a bounty on her head, determined to move the nation away from its most diabolical instincts.

    I think of Robert Abbott, who launched the Chicago Defender from a landlord’s dining room in 1905. He built a secret network of Black Pullman porters to smuggle his papers into the South, serving as a catalyst for the Great Migration — the movement of roughly six million Black Americans from the rural South to the urban North and West between 1916 and 1970.

    And, of course, there is Christopher Perry, who founded the Philadelphia Tribune in 1884, which remains the longest-running Black newspaper in the nation.

    This history is in our DNA. We call on these ancestors now because we face an overt hostility unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime.

    This moment is clarifying. Statistics highlight the stark disparities in housing, health, and education — but without the historical context of Jim Crow, redlining, and voter suppression, the public is left to believe the administration’s lie: that Black people are “inherently inferior” or merely “unqualified social promotions.”

    This hypocrisy is as old as the nation itself — a country whose “Founding Fathers” codified slavery while declaring all men equal. When your foundational document is based on a lie you refuse to address, it tracks that you would spawn a president who is morally bankrupt. As Malcolm X said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.”

    Yes, our nation has a serious problem. Yet, we persist.

    2025 was the most difficult year of my career. WURD weathered an anti-DEI lawsuit, layoffs after an advertising collapse tied to anti-DEI policies, and the day-to-day exhaustion of covering relentless racial animus in Washington.

    Yet, we did some of our best work, including a special series called Exonerated, which earned us an NAACP Image Award nomination — a rare recognition for local radio. And we’ve launched two new yearlong initiatives to make sure Black voices are centered as part of the 250th birthday festivities.

    Our ancestors didn’t just dream of a free press — they built one. We will continue using all our platforms to tell our stories and center the complexity and diversity of our history, culture, and community.

    We know that in this season of increased tension and hostility, our voice is our most potent weapon and our most sacred sanctuary.

    We don’t just broadcast; we bear witness. And in that witnessing, we find the power to not only endure the present, but to author a future where there is a possibility to be finally and fully free.

    Sara Lomax is the president and CEO of WURD Radio and the cofounder and president of URL Media.

  • House of the week: A historic five-bedroom house in Media for $785,000

    House of the week: A historic five-bedroom house in Media for $785,000

    Kai Lu and Edward Mendez had expected to spend many years in the spacious Media home, enjoying the easy access to Center City by SEPTA Regional Rail, the good schools for their two-year-old son and the second on the way, and its aura of history.

    But in the words of Lu, who is in data analytics for a major communications company, “life intervened.”

    Mendez landed his dream job as a data analyst for the Miami Marlins baseball team, and the couple are headed to Florida after two years in the house.

    The living room. The home has four working fireplaces.

    The five-bedroom, 4½-bathroom home was once the general store of Providence Village, and Lu says she doesn’t know when the changeover came.

    The earliest part of the house dates to the 18th century, with some 19th-century additions.

    The 4,334-square-foot house has three floors of living space plus an unfinished basement, and four working fireplaces powered by electric inserts.

    Front hall

    The home has its original hardwood floors and a two-zone thermostat system with central air and forced heat.

    The newly renovated kitchen has quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, gas cooking, a separate coffee bar and pantry area, and an adjacent sunroom.

    The formal dining room has built-in shelves and a fireplace.

    The kitchen, which includes a dining area.

    The primary bedroom and another bedroom are on the second floor, along with a laundry room.

    The third floor has three additional bedrooms — one of which serves as an office — two full bathrooms, and a full-sized cedar closet.

    The formal dining room has built-in shelves.

    Updates by the current owners include partial roof replacement, resurfacing and staining the hardwood floors, new flooring in the kitchen, exterior stone repointing, custom window treatments, and a new sewer line.

    The house is in the Rose Tree Media School District.

    It is listed by Amanda Terranova and Adam Baldwin of Compass Realty for $785,000.

  • Philly-area marketing experts on how to succeed on LinkedIn| Expert Opinion

    Philly-area marketing experts on how to succeed on LinkedIn| Expert Opinion

    LinkedIn now has more than 1.3 billion members by its own count. That includes millions in senior roles and C-level executives, according to a recent report from Search Engine Journal, “making it a hot spot for those aiming to connect with folks who have the power to hire your company, stock your product, or partner with your brand.”

    I’ve personally used LinkedIn for years and have built up a large number of followers. The platform has helped me grow my business, find prospects, connect with potential employees, and create new relationships.

    But, like many small-business owners, I could be doing more to increase my engagement and meet more people. Here are a few thoughts from local experts on how to maximize LinkedIn’s potential.

    Engage thoughtfully

    As with most social media sites, succeeding on LinkedIn is all about engagement. Just using the platform as a billboard for your product or services isn’t going to cut it. A LinkedIn relationship will grow when information is shared and conversation is open.

    Kevin Homer, president of Navitas Marketing in Trooper, recommends taking the time to interact with other LinkedIn users’ content and leaving thoughtful comments.

    “When you create real dialogue, LinkedIn expands your reach and strengthens your relationships,” he said.

    “Fostering conversations is the most important thing,” said Courtney Thomas, who specializes in social media at locally based communications agency Aloysius Butler & Clark.

    “If you’re regularly commenting — whether on your own posts or on other people’s or company pages’ posts — you’ll see your engagement rise,” Thomas said. “LinkedIn rewards people who participate, not just those who publish.”

    Be authentic

    Sometimes people treat LinkedIn like a vehicle to trumpet their personal and professional accomplishments. Experts warn that treating the platform in this manner can hurt your credibility and create the risk of public ridicule, which is not a good strategy for professional growth.

    It’s important to treat this platform for what it’s meant to be — a business networking site. Be professional. Be real. Be humble, and don’t be a fake.

    Nick Quirk, chief operating offer at digital marketing agency SEO Locale in Montgomeryville, says LinkedIn users should not “just broadcast information” but instead invite discussion.

    “Engagement is a two-way street, and growth happens when you stop trying to sell and start trying to connect,” he said. “People don’t come to LinkedIn to be pitched — they come to learn and relate.”

    If you’re not posting content people actually want to engage with, your engagement will tank, Thomas said.

    “People can tell immediately when something is too salesy or reads as fake,” she said. “LinkedIn isn’t the place for constant promotion; it’s where you establish credibility, demonstrate expertise, and build relationships.”

    Be consistent

    What you get out of LinkedIn will depend on what you put into it. You can’t just post something once in a while or appear and then disappear for significant lengths of time. This is a community, and you’re expected to be involved.

    “Both the algorithm and your audience reward consistency,” Quirk said, so you can’t build a following by just posting once a month.

    Homer suggests posting at least once a week, which “creates more opportunities for engagement.”

    “Helpful content that shows up regularly trains your audience to expect value from you, and engagement on those posts leads to even more visibility,” Homer said.

    Use LinkedIn tools, but don’t go overboard

    LinkedIn provides many tools for its users to accumulate more followers and spread awareness. These include video images, articles, and labels to optimize your profile, enormous amounts of online content for skill development, as well as functionality to help you create automatic replies and messaging, referrals, recommendations, and endorsements that will get you noticed and help to bolster your credibility.

    The platform is a popular place to recruit talent and, with its Sales Navigator add-in, find and then nurture leads.

    “Take advantage of everything LinkedIn lets you do,” Thomas said. ”Long-form articles, PDFs, videos, polls — there are so many features people ignore. The platform prioritizes content that keeps users engaged on LinkedIn instead of sending them elsewhere.”

    Adding images and video to posts significantly enhances them and helps boost visibility, Homer noted.

    “Think about keywords and hashtags the same way you would SEO on your website,” he said. “LinkedIn search works similarly.”

    These capabilities are helpful, but it’s important not to be robotic. For example, Quirk’s biggest pet peeve is when someone sends a connection request and then follow it with an instant, multi-paragraph sales message.

    “It’s spammy, disrespectful of time, and burns bridges,” he said. “Always personalize connection requests. Once they accept, you’ve earned a follower, not a lead.”

    Homer says it is a “major mistake” to ignore replies and rely on automatic LinkedIn messages.

    “Nothing turns people off faster than connecting and immediately receiving a generic sales pitch,” he said. “Real relationships require real conversations.”

    LinkedIn is a great place to start and build relationships that could lead to new business or profitable partnerships. In my experience, people who use it every day to both get and share knowledge, without doing a hard sell, are the most successful.

    “The businesses that get the most value out of LinkedIn understand that it’s a long game,” Thomas said. ”When you focus on contributing meaningfully instead of selling aggressively, you build an audience that actually wants to hear from you, and that’s far more valuable.”

  • An Eagles-focused guide to Tuesday’s Pro Bowl Games: Flag football, Birds legends and more

    An Eagles-focused guide to Tuesday’s Pro Bowl Games: Flag football, Birds legends and more

    The Eagles won’t play a regular-season football game for at least another 225 days, but a handful of Eagles players are slated to compete in a version of football on Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

    The Pro Bowl Games are back, taking place in the Super Bowl host area, San Francisco, in the lead-up to the title game on Sunday. Four Eagles players are expected to participate in the festivities, which will have a different format than the Pro Bowls hosted in Orlando over the last couple of years.

    Here is a breakdown of the event and the contingent of Eagles players participating:

    Linebacker Zack Baun (53) and cornerback Cooper DeJean (33) will both be on the scene in San Francisco.

    The participants

    Originally, five Eagles players were named to the Pro Bowl, including two first-timers in Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell. Zack Baun, Jalen Carter, and Cam Jurgens, who are each two-time Pro Bowlers, rounded out the rest of the group. Carter was the lone starter at his position.

    Players were selected by a consensus vote by fans, players, and coaches. Each group’s vote carried equal weight in determining the players selected to the Pro Bowl.

    The Eagles’ five original-ballot Pro Bowlers were tied for second in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, and Los Angeles Chargers. The Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks had a league-high six players.

    However, Mitchell opted out of the event. Nahshon Wright, the 27-year-old Chicago Bears cornerback, was named Mitchell’s replacement on Jan. 26. Additionally, Carter was not listed on the final roster on Saturday, indicating he had opted out, too.

    Jalen Hurts was added to the roster on Jan. 30 as a replacement for Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, bringing the Eagles’ delegation back up to four members. Hurts was listed as a fifth alternate when the original rosters were announced in December. The 27-year-old quarterback previously earned Pro Bowl honors in 2022 and 2023.

    Michael Vick (left) and DeSean Jackson were teammates for five seasons with the Eagles, are now competitors in the MEAC, and will serve as opposing offensive coordinators in the Pro Bowl.

    The format

    The Pro Bowl site is downsizing this year from Camping World Stadium in Orlando to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The event itself is downsizing, too.

    In recent years, the Pro Bowl included a flag football game as well as various skills competitions. This time around, the event will consist solely of a flag football game between the NFC and AFC teams. The league, via a press release, framed the event as an opportunity to “preview the elite athleticism and competition of the sport” ahead of its debut at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

    Both teams have their own coaching staffs led by San Francisco 49ers greats. Jerry Rice, the Hall of Fame wide receiver, and Steve Young, the Hall of Fame quarterback, will serve as head coaches for the NFC and AFC teams, respectively.

    Eagles fans ought to recognize a couple of the Pro Bowl assistant coaches. Former Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and quarterback Michael Vick are the offensive coordinators for the NFC and AFC teams, respectively. Jackson, who serves as head coach at Delaware State, and Vick, the head coach of Norfolk State, last coached against each other in October at the Linc.

    Torrey Smith, a receiver on the 2017 Eagles team that defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, is the AFC’s “flag adviser,” according to the NFL. Jason Kelce, a seven-time Pro Bowler with the Eagles, will be on the call for the flag football game for a second straight year on ESPN.

    Jalen Hurts at the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown in Orlando on Feb. 1, 2024. Hurts was added to a long list of Eagles Pro Bowlers this season.

    The history

    This is the first time that Eagles players will have the opportunity to compete in the Pro Bowl since 2024. In 2025, Pro Bowlers Baun, Carter, Jurgens, Landon Dickerson, Lane Johnson, and Saquon Barkley were busy preparing for the Super Bowl.

    According to Stathead, the Eagles have had a total of 313 Pro Bowl selections since 1938, back when it was known as the NFL All-Star Game. Since 2022, the Eagles have had at least four original-ballot Pro Bowlers per season, including 2023 when they tied a franchise-best eight selections (last accomplished in 1960).

    This year’s Pro Bowl will be the first without Johnson listed on the roster since 2021. In his 13 seasons with the Eagles, he has earned six Pro Bowl nods, tied for fifth in franchise history.

    San Francisco will host the Pro Bowl for the first time in the event’s history. However, this is not the first time that the Pro Bowl will be part of the festivities leading up to the Super Bowl. In 2010, the Pro Bowl moved to the site of the Super Bowl, Sun Life Stadium in Miami, the Sunday before the big game. The 2015 Pro Bowl also took place at the same venue as the Super Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., earlier that week.

    The Pro Bowl was famously held in Hawaii for 35 years, but it departed indefinitely in 2017. The league has made various attempts to tweak the event, as it has been criticized for its lack of quality play and entertainment value. According to Sports Media Watch, last year’s Pro Bowl averaged 4.7 million viewers, which made it the least-watched iteration over the last three years since the introduction of the flag football format.

  • Signs of a frozen housing market in Philadelphia and Delaware County

    Signs of a frozen housing market in Philadelphia and Delaware County

    The ground and your toes aren’t the only things frozen in the Philadelphia region.

    In the city and Delaware County last month, potential home sellers and buyers stayed on the sidelines, and sales were slow, according to a Redfin analysis of the 50 most-populous metropolitan areas for the four weeks ending Jan. 25. Pending home sales were down about 4% from the same time last year.

    “You’re just not seeing a lot of activity happening,” said Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin.

    What has been heating up are prices. The market that Redfin defines as Philadelphia and Delaware County was in the top three areas where sale prices increased the most compared to the same time last year. The median sale price was up just over 10% to $294,125.

    Limited home supply and rising home prices tend to go hand in hand, and that is what is happening in these markets, Zhao said.

    Sales in January’s slow market happened at higher prices because buyers who are still in the market are willing to pay elevated prices.

    The average number of new home listings ticked up slightly from last year, and it should continue to grow as the typically busy spring housing market approaches. So should the number of buyers looking for homes.

    Any changes in affordability, Zhao said, will be “mostly driven by mortgage rates, not so much by prices.”

    The average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was almost 7% at the end of January 2025, according to the government-backed mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. This year, it was 6.10% at the end of the month.

    Zhao said she doesn’t expect mortgage rates to go much lower this year.

    But buyers have more power than they think, especially now when sales are slow, Zhao said. They “really should be thinking about negotiating” with sellers.

  • Vanguard drops its average fee to just 0.06% with latest cuts

    Vanguard drops its average fee to just 0.06% with latest cuts

    Vanguard Group has unleashed another round of fee cuts across its lineup of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, further tightening the screws on an industry already known for its low costs.

    The Jack Bogle-founded asset manager, which oversees about $12 trillion, is lowering costs for 84 share classes of mutual funds and ETFs across 53 funds in total, Vanguard said in a news release Monday. The reductions bring Vanguard’s average asset-weighted expense ratio to 0.06%, shaving one basis point from last year’s record fee cut.

    Monday’s fee cuts are par for the course for Vanguard, which has reshaped the asset management world over the past 50 years with its low-cost index funds — pressuring its peers to drop their own costs to rock-bottom levels in order to compete. Now, as that race-to-the-bottom seemingly hits its limit with the average fee on new funds beginning to rise, Vanguard is sticking to its blueprint of steadily lowering fees.

    “Vanguard is investor-owned — we have no outside stockholders or inside owners profiting from our clients,” Vanguard chief executive officer Salim Ramji said in Monday’s release. “These fee reductions — more than half a billion dollars over the past two years — are a clear expression of our purpose and commitment to our clients as owners.”

    Between last year and this year’s cost cuts, Vanguard estimates its investors have saved about $600 million, according to the release.

    Vanguard’s unique ownership structure blunts some of the margin-pressure that its competitors feel from low costs. Fund shareholders elect its board members, who in turn funnel extra cash or assets generated by its products toward lowering costs.

    Nonetheless, Vanguard pulls in much less fee revenue from its $12 trillion in assets than its peers. Despite ranking second in overall ETF assets, the Malvern-based firm generated about $1.5 billion in fee revenue last year from its U.S.-listed ETFs, trailing issuers with smaller AUM (assets under management) levels, Bloomberg Intelligence data shows. That compares to a $5.4 billion haul for BlackRock’s U.S.-listed ETF lineup, which is only 6% larger than Vanguard’s at the end of 2025.

    Vanguard’s average fees are continuing to drift lower even as the asset manager stages a push into actively-managed funds, which tend to command higher expense ratios. The firm launched its first traditional stock-picking ETFs last year, a trio which includes the Vanguard Wellington Dividend Growth Active ETF (ticker VDIG), which ranks as its costliest ETF with a 0.40% fee.

  • NFL draft season has officially kicked off. Here are some early Eagles-focused takeaways.

    NFL draft season has officially kicked off. Here are some early Eagles-focused takeaways.

    MOBILE, Ala. — The snowstorms that swept the country over the last two weeks affected travel plans for many, including those within the NFL. Texas was hit with three inches between the first and second practices of the East-West Shrine Bowl, forcing NFL scouting staffs to change travel plans.

    And getting from the Dallas area to Mobile, Ala., was no easier. Changed and canceled flights, long days in the airport, and sold-out hotels made scouting the next group of NFL players difficult. But that didn’t stop teams from sending big contingents of scouts, coaches, and front office executives in droves to watch and interview players who will soon fill their rosters.

    Every team at both the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl all-star games meets with every participant, so the Eagles have not zeroed in on any prospects just yet, but that process has begun, With that in mind, here’s what we learned from attending the all-star game circuit:

    Heavy presence at the Shrine Bowl

    All 32 teams were accounted for in some capacity in Frisco, Texas, for Shrine Bowl practices, and the Eagles sent several scouts, including personnel consultant Darren Sproles, director of college scouting Ryan Myers, West Coast area scout Rod Streater, and northeast scout Ben Ijalana.

    Many of these scouts spend all season on the road meeting and making connections with prospects, and attending the all-star game circuit gives them an opportunity to watch players up close and interview them directly.

    The Eagles were among a handful of teams that had strong representation from scouting personnel at the Shrine Bowl. The Lions, Rams, Dolphins, Colts, Raiders, and Panthers were among the teams with several scouts interacting and intently watching prospects from the sidelines at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility. Dallas, too, had many within the organization roaming the sideline.

    Darren Sproles (center) with other Eagles scouting personnel during the Shrine Bowl quarterback throwing session on Jan. 22.

    Eagles scouts were on hand during the quarterback throwing session the day before Shrine Bowl practices began. Considering that new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion was the OC of the West team in Frisco, Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski and Louisville’s Miller Moss could garner strong late-round consideration from the Eagles, who might consider drafting another QB after not retaining sixth-round pick Kyle McCord.

    Hurtt and Singleton work directly with prospects

    Eagles defensive line coach Clint Hurtt relished his opportunity to be head coach of the National team at the Senior Bowl, and his direct involvement with draft prospects during the week could be helpful for the Eagles’ scouting process. Also, Eagles running backs coach Jemal Singleton served as offensive coordinator, allowing him to work directly and closely with offensive draft prospects in Mobile.

    While Hurtt rotated between position groups during the three-day practice week, he told The Inquirer on Thursday that he gravitated toward the defensive side of the ball considering his experience on that side as a position coach and former defensive coordinator.

    Prospects also talked about being able to pick Hurtt’s brain as well, especially defensive linemen. Western Michigan edge rusher Nadame Tucker was one of those players to soak up knowledge, and his strong week should garner intrigue from the Eagles.

    Texas Christian safety Bud Clark was another standout who was complimentary of Hurtt’s energy, which seemed to resonate throughout the day even as things got chippy on the final day of practice.

    Singleton’s opportunity to call plays also gave him a closer look at positions like tight end, offensive line, and wide receiver, all potential areas of need for the Eagles heading into the draft. Texas A&M tackle Dametrious Crownover and tight end Nate Boerkircher were standouts at their respective positions, while Wisconsin wide receiver Vinny Anthony and Baylor’s Josh Cameron looked like potential slot options to replace Jahan Dotson as WR3 if he doesn’t return to the team next season.

    The Eagles typically have scouts in Mobile, and even chief of security Dom DiSandro made the trip down in recent years. But working directly with players and getting a chance to see prospects up close and getting direct coaching from people within the Eagles’ building gave them more insight and intel on prospects who could land in Philly in a few months.

    It’s also worth noting that three of the 10 players the Eagles drafted last year were at the Senior Bowl and they have drafted at least one player who participated in the all-star game over the last six drafts.

    A top-heavy O-line class

    Kadyn Proctor, Alabama’s standout left tackle, stood in the end zone at The Star in Frisco, watching Shrine Bowl practice and talking with NFL scouts. He hadn‘t committed to any all-star games, but he was hanging around the practice facility and attending meetings along with other draft prospects who were competing that week.

    Penn State O-linemen Drew Shelton and Olaivavega Ioane were also at the Shrine Bowl host hotel interviewing with teams. Proctor, Shelton, and Ioane are training with Duke Manyweather, the cofounder of OL Masterminds alongside Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. Manyweather trains current and soon-to-be NFL offensive linemen at Sports Academy in Frisco.

    Proctor will be a hot commodity during the first round of April’s draft, partly because of his movement skills at 6-foot-7, 366 pounds, and partly because of the steep drop-off of true draft-eligible offensive tackles. The Shrine and Senior Bowl practices highlighted that further.

    Along with Proctor, Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, and Utah’s Caleb Lomu and Spencer Fano seem to be the surefire first-round players at the position. Georgia’s Monroe Freeling, Clemson’s Blake Miller, and Arizona State’s Max Iheanachor, who competed at the Senior Bowl last week, could be late first- or early second-round picks. Iheanachor in particular was in the best offensive lineman in Mobile, which is impressive considering that he didn’t play football in high school.

    There are more players who will either need further development or project as depth linemen. As opposed to last year, finding a starting offensive lineman after Day 2 of the draft will prove difficult in this class.

    The same can be said about interior offensive line, although there are several tackles, including Iowa’s Gennings Dunker, Duke’s Brian Parker, and Texas A&M’s Trey Zuhn, who will likely move to the interior at the NFL level.

    For a team like the Eagles, who could be looking to upgrade their offensive line in the interior and identify a replacement for Lane Johnson, spending a premium pick early in the draft on linemen would be ideal. At both the Senior and Shrine Bowls, Eagles scouts were up close to the offensive and defensive line one-on-one drills.

    With important contract extension decisions coming up on the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles won’t have much wiggle room to make big swings via trade or free agency to upgrade the offensive line. Getting an impactful lineman early in the draft could prove critical to extending their win-now window.

    Defensive lineman LT Overton of Alabama runs through drills during practice for the Senior Bowl on Jan. 28.

    Edge rushers, cornerbacks in spotlight

    Two positions the Eagles will likely need to address defensively are edge rusher and a second cornerback to complement Quinyon Mitchell. Jaelan Phillips was impactful as a midseason trade addition but needs a new contract, while Adoree’ Jackson is set to become a free agent.

    If the Eagles chose to move on from Phillips, there’s a strong Day 2 and early Day 3 class of edge rushers to choose from, many of them showcasing their talents on the all-star circuit.

    At the Shrine Bowl, Central Florida’s Malachi Lawrence and Wisconsin’s Mason Reiger were among the standouts of the week, although both excel more as pass rushers than run defenders. In Mobile, it was Illinois’ Gabe Jacas, Michigan’s Derrick Moore, Alabama’s LT Overton, Missouri’s Zion Young, and Western Michigan’s Tucker who flashed in either practice or the Senior Bowl game.

    Of the players mentioned, Jacas and Overton would be ideal players to complement Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt in the corps of edge rushers. A 6-3, 260-pound, densely framed edge rusher, Jacas has heavy hands to knock back offensive linemen and has enough wiggle to beat tackles on their outside shoulders. He can pass rush from the interior and from the edge, and his playing style could match Brandon Graham’s role over the last two seasons in Vic Fangio’s defense.

    Overton, who had a sack during the Senior Bowl, can play from multiple alignments, has powerful hands, and a strong bull rush on run downs. He has the skill set of a first-round player, but his impact has been inconsistent over the last two seasons. Overton, however, is the type of draft pick Howie Roseman has coveted: a former five-star prospect who hasn’t always lived up to his recruiting ranking.

    The secondary groups at both the Shrine and Senior Bowls were the best position groups collectively, especially at corner and nickel. In Frisco, North Carolina State’s Devon Marshall, Toledo’s Avery Smith, and Oregon’s Jadon Canady were steady players throughout the practice week. Marshall’s ability to challenge wideouts at the line of scrimmage and be disruptive at the catch point helped prove he was one of the best overall players there.

    Arkansas’ Julian Neal (6-1), San Diego State’s Chris Johnson (6-foot), and Tennessee’s Colton Hood (5-11) have ideal size and coverage skills to man the second corner spot for the Eagles, and Hood will likely go in the first round.

    If either position turns into a pressing need for the Eagles, it’s a good draft to upgrade those spots.

  • Jeffrey Lurie admired Kellen Moore as OC in Dallas and hired a similar coach, Sean Mannion, for the Eagles

    Jeffrey Lurie admired Kellen Moore as OC in Dallas and hired a similar coach, Sean Mannion, for the Eagles

    Folks keep trying to compare little-known Sean Mannion with previous Eagles hires. In fact, the best comp was in Dallas.

    It’s true that Mannion, the new offensive coordinator, shares some characteristics with former Eagles OC Jon Gruden, a former wide receivers coach whom Jeffrey Lurie and the Eagles hired at the age of 31. Similarly, when the Eagles hired 40-year-old Packers quarterbacks coach Andy Reid to be their head coach in 1999, Reid had never called plays, established a scheme, or formulated a game plan.

    But by 1999 Reid had been a coach for 17 years, and by 1995 Gruden had been a coach for nine years. Mannion, by contrast, has been a coach for just two years, both with the Packers, one of them as Matt LaFleur’s “offensive assistant,” the NFL’s equivalent of an unpaid internship.

    That doesn’t mean Mannion can’t do the job.

    After all, Mannion is no bigger risk for the Eagles than Kellen Moore was for the Cowboys in 2019.

    When Jerry Jones named Moore the offensive coordinator in Dallas, Moore was a short-term, insignificant NFL backup with only one year of coaching experience, as the Cowboys’ quarterbacks coach. He was 29.

    Mannion is a short-term, insignificant NFL backup with one year of experience as a position coach. He is 33.

    He also is a consolation prize.

    The Eagles wanted a Josh McDaniels-type OC like Mike McDaniel or Brian Daboll, former head coaches and accomplished coordinators. McDaniel chose the Chargers. Daboll went to Tennessee.

    The Birds got Mannion. He’s not nothing.

    Sean Mannion, 33, has two years of coaching experience in the NFL.

    This might sound like a desperate attempt to cope with what legitimately should be cast as a repudiation of the Eagles by the best and the brightest. This also might sound like an attempt to diminish the injury concerns the Eagles have at offensive line, the commitment concerns they have with A.J. Brown, and the performance concerns they have with Jalen Hurts.

    Maybe it is, a little bit.

    Sometimes, though, as anyone who’s been married can tell you, your first choice isn’t your best choice.

    Sometimes, you don’t get what you want. You get what you need.

    A grudging admiration

    Few owners keep their ear to the ground the way Lurie does. Over his three decades of ownership he routinely has attended the Senior Bowl, which serves as the NFL’s de facto job fair, where aspiring young coaches gather to distribute resumés and a place where executives meet to gossip about hot new coaching prospects.

    As soon as Moore quit playing in 2017, his sixth season in the NFL and his third with Dallas, including practice squads, he was identified as a comer. In 2018, as QB coach, he corrected Dak Prescott’s slump. In 2019, when Wade Wilson retired, Jones controversially promoted Moore, who wasn’t even 30 and looked like he wasn’t even 20.

    Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore watching practice in 2020.

    According to an Eagles executive at the time, no one was more impressed by Jones hiring such an outside-the-box candidate than the NFL owner who spends most of his time thinking outside of the box: Jeffrey Lurie.

    Jones’ gamble paid off.

    In 2019, as OC, Moore pushed Dallas’ offense from 22nd to No. 1. That didn’t save the job of head coach Jason Garrett, but it did convince Jones to ask incoming head coach Mike McCarthy keep Moore as the OC. Sure enough, after a dip in 2020, Dallas was No. 1 in 2021, too.

    All along, Lurie was watching Moore’s success and acknowledging the wisdom of Jones, his archrival, with grudging admiration.

    The Cowboys offense then ranked No. 4 in 2022, but by the end of that season McCarthy had so badly mismanaged the Cowboys that he needed a scapegoat. He chose Moore to be his fall guy, and so fired him. (Two years later, Moore was interviewing for McCarthy’s job.)

    Later that winter the Eagles lost OC Shane Steichen, who became the head coach in Indianapolis. Why didn’t Lurie pounce on Moore then?

    Because the Eagles were coming off a Super Bowl appearance, and, according to league sources, head coach Nick Sirianni, having gained even more authority over his staff, wanted to promote from within. Hurts, in line for a huge contract extension, had earned a seat at the hiring table, too. Quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson had been hired in 2021 in part because of Johnson’s preexisting relationship with Hurts. With Hurts’ blessing, Sirianni promoted Johnson.

    Moore instead went west in 2023 as the offensive coordinator for Justin Herbert and the Chargers. A year later, as part of a purge by new head coach Jim Harbaugh, Moore was available again. Johnson had struggled in 2023, and was fired. Lurie pounced. Moore became the Eagles’ OC. The Birds won the Super Bowl after the 2024 season. Moore then got the head coaching job in New Orleans.

    The Eagles won Super Bowl LIX with Kellen Moore as their offensive coordinator.

    He remains the only offensive coordinator in Eagles history to win a Super Bowl calling his own plays — thereby, arguably, the greatest offensive coordinator in Eagles history.

    Those are big shoes for Mannion to fill.

    Déjà vu and Nick Foles

    Moore declined to comment for this column, which is unfortunate, because, in 2019, he nearly was in Mannion’s exact position as an unproven coordinator in a high-pressure market. He also inherited an offensive roster full of pedigreed players, such as running back Ezekiel Elliott, offensive linemen Tyron Smith and Zack Martin, wideout Amari Cooper, and of course, Prescott, who was an overachieving, second-tier draftee who had not completely polished his game.

    The same can be said of Hurts, who is surrounded by a similarly pedigreed cast: four Pro Bowl offensive linemen, two 1,000-yard receivers, and a running back halfway to the Hall of Fame.

    There are differences, of course. Upon becoming OC, Moore had spent four seasons in Dallas as either a player or coach, and so was familiar with the players, coaches, and the unique culture inside The Star, the Cowboys’ training compound.

    Also, Mannion won’t inherit as stable a situation as Moore, who followed Scott Linehan, who had the job for four years. Mannion will be succeeding Kevin Patullo, Sirianni’s longtime right-hand man who was removed from the job on Jan. 13 following a disastrous one-year run.

    On the other hand, Mannion has more connections than Moore. Between playing and coaching, Mannion has been around accomplished offensive minds such as Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, for whom Mannion worked the last two seasons, and Rams head coach Sean McVay, for whom Mannion played in 2017 and 2018.

    It’s also worth noting that, when Mannion was a rookie in the 2015, the Rams’ starting quarterback was a former Pro Bowl MVP named Nicholas Edward Foles.

    Endorsements

    In 2019, immediately after promoting Moore, Jones defended the move by citing Moore’s ability to communicate clearly, Moore’s high football IQ, and Moore’s strength of character.

    Immediately before the promotion, Moore’s candidacy received a major endorsement from Prescott, who not only had been coached by Moore but also had been Moore’s teammate. On a Dallas radio station, Prescott called Moore a “genius phenom. … He’s special. He knows a lot about the game. Just the way he sees the game, the way he’s ahead of the game. He can bring a lot to us, a lot of creativity.”

    Lurie likely won’t offer comments regarding Mannion until he speaks with the press at the owners’ meetings at the end of March in Phoenix.

    Packers quarterback Jordan Love, in his third season as a starter, cut his interception total from 11 in 2023 and 2024 to six in 2025. Backup Malik Willis got better, too. Neither has called Mannion a “genius phenom.”

    Neither has Sirianni, who has issued the only statement from the Eagles, who have not scheduled a media availability with Mannion and his bosses.

    Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is welcoming yet another offensive coordinator.

    In a statement that defined banality, Sirianni called Mannion “a bright young coach with a tremendous future ahead of him in this league. I was impressed by his systematic views on offensive football and his strategic approach.”

    The franchise’s excitement paled in comparison to the region’s fascination with this hire.

    Over the last three weeks or so, the process of replacing Patullo received unprecedented media attention, considering it was the hiring of an assistant coach. That’s partly due to intensified media coverage of everything NFL, but also because the Eagles are in a window to win right now. Fairly or not, no one bore as much blame for the 2025 one-and-done playoff run as Patullo. No one will face as much pressure for 2026 as Mannion.

    This is similar to the situation Moore inherited in Dallas in 2019, and he shined.

    That doesn’t mean Mannion will, too, but, in Lurie, Eagles fans can take heart.

    With Gruden and Reid in his history, Lurie has a wonderful track record when over-hiring position coaches from Green Bay.

  • Josh Shapiro is increasingly critical of ICE in Minneapolis. Some point out he still cooperates with the agency.

    Josh Shapiro is increasingly critical of ICE in Minneapolis. Some point out he still cooperates with the agency.

    WASHINGTON — In a string of public appearances since federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, Gov. Josh Shapiro has repeatedly decried the federal immigration operation in Minnesota as unconstitutional and called on President Donald Trump to “terminate the mission.”

    The centrist Democratic governor leaned heavily into criticism of the Trump administration as he toured the East Coast — and network and cable news shows — to promote his new memoir, Where We Keep The Light, last week.

    “I believe this administration in Washington is using [government] for pure evil in Minnesota right now,” Shapiro, who is widely believed to be setting up a presidential run, told Late Show host Stephen Colbert last week. “And it should not be hard to say that.”

    Known to be a careful messenger, Shapiro’s approach to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operations in Minneapolis evolved over the last week, from his initial decision over the first year of Trump’s second presidency not to aggressively speak out against ICE’s enforcement tactics to a hard-line approach condemning the Trump administration’s mission following the killing of another U.S. citizen by federal agents that became national tipping point.

    When ICE agents killed Renee Good in early January, Shapiro issued a statement mourning her death, but made no broader conclusions about ICE and did not mention her by name.

    Now, he has honed a clear and authoritative message that the Trump administration’s strategies are eroding trust in law enforcement, violating constitutional rights and making communities less safe. If Trump moves his focus and forces to Pennsylvania, he says, state officials are prepared to push back.

    According to polling obtained by Puck News, Shapiro has landed on some of the most effective messaging on immigration in the country.

    Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) speak during a talk for his new memoir “Where We Keep the Light” on January 29, 2026 in Washington, D.C

    But immigrant rights groups in Pennsylvania say the governor took too long to speak up and has yet to back his rhetoric up with concrete actions in his home state by ending cooperation with ICE.

    “Because it is the topic of the day, he’s getting these pointed questions, and his answer to that is to point to what they’re doing wrong in Minnesota. Meanwhile, he’s over here telling us that he’s not going to stop collaborating with ICE,” said Tammy Murphy, advocacy manager at immigrant rights group Make the Road Pennsylvania. “It’s easy for him to point the finger to somebody else, but then what is he doing at home?”

    At a roundtable with journalists in Washington on Thursday, Shapiro said he didn’t view his new outspokenness against ICE’s operations in Minneapolis as a tone shift, but acknowledged that the situation had become more serious in recent days and he “reached a point where it was critically important” to comment on the situation in Minnesota and tell Pennsylvanians his views.

    “I think I’ve been in the same place on this to protect our immigrant communities and also make sure that Pennsylvania is safe,” Shapiro said.

    “Both [Good and Pretti’s deaths] told me the same story that you had people who were not following proper policing tactics. People who were in the field who seemingly, and it became more clear to me over the last week or two, did not have a clear mission and that the directive that they had clearly was not within the bounds of the constitution.”

    Shapiro has called for residents to continue peacefully protesting ICE activity. Speaking to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) in a book tour stop in Washington on Thursday evening, Shapiro noted that those protests had led to the votes against DHS funding Warnock was preparing to take that week.

    “That’s people power right now, and this is a moment where we need to raise our voices,” Shapiro said. (His event was then promptly, but briefly, interrupted by climate protesters)

    That same night Shapiro’s likely Republican opponent, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, told The Inquirer that Minnesotans need to “cooperate” with ICE and that Pennsylvania officials should, too.

    “It’s always good to cooperate with ICE, especially when they’re doing targeted actions,” Garrity said.

    Samuel Chen, a GOP strategist, said Shapiro’s harsh rhetoric would create a clear distinction between him and Garrity while “endearing him to the Democrats should he run in 2028.”

    Chen noted that even some Republicans have criticized Trump’s approach to Minnesota, which creates an opportunity for Shapiro to speak out.

    “With that being public opinion the governor has a lot of cover to come out even harder,” Chen said. “It’s a win, win, win for him.”

    Chalk on the sidewalk reading “Shapiro Stop ICE in PA,” during a protest outside the Free Library as Gov. Josh Shapiro promoted his new book “Where We Keep The Light” in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026.

    Even as he makes the case against ICE’s recent actions, Shapiro is still being careful not to go too far. He frequently mentions that Pennsylvania is not a sanctuary state. In an interview with Fox News last week, he criticized Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s comments comparing ICE agents to Nazis as unacceptable rhetoric.

    “It is abhorrent and it is wrong, period, hard stop, end of sentence,” Shapiro said.

    What is most frustrating to immigrant rights groups is the Shapiro administration’s willingness to cooperate with ICE — even if on a limited basis — while other Democratic governors have taken strong actions against it. Gov. Maura Healy of Massachusetts, for example, banned ICE from state facilities.

    Meanwhile, Shapiro’s administration honors some ICE detainers in state prisons and provides ICE with access to state databases that include personal identifying information for immigrants.

    “You are still collaborating with the agency that is murdering our people, that you yourself have named as violating the constitution,” said Jasmine Rivera, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition.

    When Parady La, an Upper Darby resident and Cambodian immigrant died of a drug withdrawal in ICE custody last month, they note, Shapiro said nothing.

    “You know, Parady La’s death was also bad,” said Murphy, who is with Make The Road. “That happened in this state at the hands of federal agents. And he’s silent about that, but then he’s got something to say about Renee Good or Alex Pretti. He’s talking about those people, but not the people here.”

    The Shapiro administration says that outside agencies do not have “unfettered access” to state databases but may offer access to federal agents for “legitimate investigations that involve foreign nationals who have committed crimes.”

    Furthermore, they say ICE detainers are honored only when a detainee has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to state prison.

    In a letter to advocates last month, the administration vowed not to lease state property to ICE and reiterated that State Police are barred from conducting immigration enforcement and that federal agencies must obtain a warrant to access non-public space in state buildings.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with Stephen Colbert last week.

    This cautious approach is part of a balancing act Shapiro must handle as he pursues reelection in a politically split state and weighs a potential run for higher office, said Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University.

    “He is spinning plates and juggling flaming torches, all while he’s playing the kazoo,” Dagnes added “That combination is really important to consider as we look at his shifting rhetoric, his carefulness that moved into a louder stance.”

    But advocates want Shapiro to take a firmer stance and say they won’t stop pushing until he does.

    “Politically, he wants to be seen as ‘both sides,’” Murphy said. “He doesn’t want to be seen challenging Trump or this deportation machine.”