Right guard Chris Lindstrom, the Falcons first-round pick (14th overall) suffered a foot injury in the season-opening loss to the Vikings. He was placed on injured reserved with a designation to return.
Lindstrom has a 21-day practice window. He can return anytime after missing eight games. The Saints’ game will be his eighth.
"Well, the best way you'll know is when we can activate him," Falcons coach Dan Quinn said on Monday. "Then there's a window that can go for when we can get started on him."
While the time is close to passing, Lindstrom still must be medically cleared to return.
“It still comes down to the doctors and where they're at, and he'll have some more checkups in the next couple weeks to see where that goes,” Quinn said.
The Falcons are hopeful Lindstrom will make it back.
“He's hit all the markers that we'd wanted him to hit,” Quinn said. “Now it's a matter of where he is on the healing side of things. All indications are that he's off to a great start and great comeback from where he wanted to be.”
Lindstrom had surgery to repair the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot on Sept. 11.
The earliest Lindstrom could return would be Game 10 against Carolina on Nov. 17.
Last season, linebacker Deion Jones suffered a broken foot in the season opener and returned to play the final five games of the season.
With Lindstrom out, Jamon Brown and Wes Schweitzer have started at right guard.
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