Falcons Baker to seek second opinion on injured hip

Flowery Branch — The Falcons’ offensive line, which has paved the way for the league’s No. 3 rushing attack, will be short-handed Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

Rookie left tackle Sam Baker, who suffered a hip injury last Wednesday, will miss the next few practices and will not make the trip to Oakland.

He’s set to visit two hip specialists.

“He injured his hip, and we aggressively treated it,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said Tuesday. “It’s not responded. The medical staff suggested that he goes and seeks other opinions.”

After selecting quarterback Matt Ryan with the third pick in the draft, general manager Thomas Dimitroff made his first major trade to get an extra pick in the first round to select Baker.

The Falcons are being extra cautious with Baker, who’s considered one of the future cornerstones of the line. He won the starting job to open the season. The left tackle position is considered the most important spot on the line because he protects the quarterback’s blind side on passing plays.

Baker also was doing well with his run blocking, helping the Falcons to average 150.3 yards a game. He was in the lineup when Michael Turner rushed for a franchise record 220 yards against Detroit in the opener.

The Falcons sent two second-round picks (Nos. 34 and 48) and their fourth-round pick (No. 103) to Washington for the 21st pick, a third-rounder (No. 84) and a fifth-round pick (No. 154). The 21st pick was used to select Baker.

This will be the third full game that he has missed, and he did not finish two other games this season.

Baker tried to play last Sunday against Philadelphia. However, during pregame warm-ups, the injury flared up and he was declared inactive for the game.

“Sam is very competitive,” Smith said. “It’s just an unfortunate situation that Sam has been injured. He wants to come back as fast as he can.”

Baker doesn’t have a checkered injury past. He never missed a practice over his first four years at USC, including a redshirt season, but he broke his ribs and tore a hamstring in his senior season, causing him to miss three starts and major parts of two other games.

Todd Weiner, who took Baker’s place against Philadelphia, likely will start Sunday and be backed up Quinn Ojinnaka.

“The next man up is going to have to be prepared,” Smith said. “When you get this far along in the season every team has to deal with players being injured and not being ready to play. We have guys that will have to step up.”

Weiner, who is coming off of major reconstructive knee surgery, did not finish the Philadelphia game. Ojinnaka completed the game at left tackle.

“We are anticipating that Todd is going to be OK by the end of the week,” Smith said.

Smith did not want to project if Baker could be out longer than one week.

“We need to find what the issue is and get him back as quick as we can,” Smith said. “He’s definitely out this week, and we hope to get him back as soon as we can.”

The Falcons might scan the free agent list to add some depth to the line if Baker is out for an extended period. Wayne Gandy, who started the first five games last season at left tackle, is currently a free agent.

“That’s always a possibility,” Smith said. “That’s something that we are looking at.

Offensive tackle Renardo Foster, who started two games and played in seven last season, is on the physically-unable-to-perform list, and the Falcons have two weeks to decide if they can activate him or leave him on the PUP for the rest of the season.