OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels took a moment to chat on the field as the Ravens and Commanders held a joint practice on Wednesday.
Then a third Heisman Trophy winner joined the group when Derrick Henry came over.
So many football hopes and dreams among Baltimore and Washington fans are tied up in that trio of stars — particularly the two quarterbacks, each of whom is trying to rebound after an injury-filled 2025.
“Basically just asked him how he is doing, asked him how he feels with his new scheme, stuff like that,” Jackson said. "Regular convo.”
It was a reasonably routine practice for the Commanders and Ravens. Although there was some pushing and shoving, there was none of the brawling that occasionally rears its head at these sessions. The teams will play an exhibition game in Baltimore on Friday night.
A year ago Daniels was coming off an NFC championship game appearance as a rookie. Jackson had just produced career highs in several passing categories, throwing for 41 touchdowns with only four interceptions.
But the 2025 season quickly fell apart for both quarterbacks and their teams. Daniels played in only seven games as Washington went 5-12. Jackson played in 13 games but didn't look like himself for much of the season. Baltimore surprisingly missed the playoffs.
So if there's some empathy between the two, it would only be natural.
“What he's accomplished in the league is second to none,” Daniels said. “A lot of respect for Lamar and what he's done, how he's been doubted his whole career to now, and he's shining. I'd like to keep our conversation private, but the utmost respect for Lamar.”
Both Jackson and Daniels have new offensive coordinators this year, and Jackson has a new coach as well in Jesse Minter. The big question for Jackson is whether he'll return to being a dominant rushing threat after a career-low 349 yards on the ground last season.
“I was hurt last year, so I really could not do anything like I wanted to,” Jackson said. “It really would not (have) put my team in a good position if I was just running hurt. ... But whatever it takes to win, that is what I am all about.”
The Commanders have turned to Brandon Coleman at left tackle after Laremy Tunsil's triceps injury. Coleman had his hands full with Baltimore pass-rushing star Trey Hendrickson.
“A lot of reps that I want back. He's a phenomenal rusher,” Coleman said. “Makes you play with perfect technique — that's what he does. And I knew that coming in, and I just didn't uphold that for myself. That's why I'm so upset with myself.”
The center position is an even bigger issue. After Washington released veteran Tyler Biadasz in February, guard Nick Allegretti seemed as if he might be the answer at center, but he's missed much of camp with a calf injury.
Also, guard Sam Cosmi was out sick for Washington on Wednesday.
Baltimore has its own concerns at center after losing Tyler Linderbaum to free agency. Danny Pinter went down with a leg injury last week, and Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic remain in the mix.
“Guys are getting better each and every day. It is still competition, I believe," Jackson said. “Just seeing, keep evaluating, but guys are stepping up each and every day. They are getting better.”
The Ravens signed linebacker Michael Barrett and the Commanders signed tackle D.J. Humphries.
Humphries has made 101 starts in 10 NFL seasons.
“Just the depth at tackle, made sense to have him come in," coach Dan Quinn said. “Proven player, and a good player.”
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Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) works out during the team's NFL football joint training camp with the Baltimore Ravens, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson speaks during a press conference following the team's NFL football joint training camp with the Washington Commanders, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, in Owings Mills, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Slava ‘Sal’ Veder, best known for his picture of a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel joyfully reuniting with his family after five years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, died Aug. 22. He was 99.
Veder’s family on Wednesday confirmed that the retired Associated Press photojournalist died in his sleep, just eight days shy of his 100th birthday, at his home in El Dorado County, California, outside of Sacramento.
The San Francisco Bay Area native was 46 years old in March 1973 when he was sent to Travis Air Force Base for the arrival of Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm and other war prisoners returning from Vietnam. Veder was in a crowded bullpen jockeying for pictures with dozens of other photographers when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Stirm’s four children begin to gallop toward their father.
“You could tell, even at a distance, what they were feeling. It was all over them, their faces, the way they all broke into a run. There was a surge of emotion from the crowd, too,” Veder said in a 2015 interview with The Guardian.
Using a makeshift darkroom set up in a women’s bathroom on base, Veder cranked out six images, including “Burst of Joy,” which won the 1974 Pulitzer in feature photography. Veder noted that in the photograph, Stirm has his back to the camera, rendering him an everyman soldier returning to the undeniable joy and excitement on the faces of his children.
The photo became a symbol of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. But for Stirm, it represented heartbreak as he had been handed a “Dear John” letter from his wife, Loretta, by a chaplain upon his release and the couple divorced a year later. Stirm died in 2025.
Slava J. Veder was born Aug. 30, 1926, in Berkeley, California, to Ivan and Anka Veder, who had left Russia and taken the names John and Ann when they settled in the U.S. He was their only child.
He worked as a sports writer and news editor at several publications and, in 1961, he was hired as a staff photographer by The Associated Press at its Sacramento bureau. Later, he transferred to the San Francisco office, which is where he was based when he took the prize-winning photograph.
“He was a newsman at heart, it wasn’t just a career for him. It was really his passion,” said his daughter, Kathleen Daly. “The AP really was the home for him because they could appreciate what he had to offer.”
Daly, friends and former colleagues remembered Veder as a kind and humble person who loved to ice skate and sail. He mentored younger photographers and always took time to ask the people around him how they were doing that day.
“He was the first Pulitzer Prize winner I ever met, like holy smokes,” said Brad Mangin, a freelance sports photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. “He was just the sweetest man.”
Eric Risberg, a retired AP photographer who worked in San Francisco, said Veder was a great mentor and teacher.
“He really, really emphasized the marriage between pictures and words. He encouraged me to dive deeper, and get more into what’s really the story?” Risberg said.
Among his many assignments, Veder took photographs of the late Ronald Reagan when he was California governor, university campus protests against the war in Vietnam, the bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White in 1978.
Veder, who raised five children with his wife, retired from AP in 1993 to the small community of Camino, in El Dorado County.
He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Har, a former AP journalist, contributed reporting previously for this story. AP reporters Randy Herschaft in New York and Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.
FILE - Released prisoner of war Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm is greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., as he returns home from the Vietnam War, March 17, 1973. (AP Photo/Sal Veder, File)
