The veteran tackle finds himself without a clear path to a starting job, and perhaps even without a roster spot.
Sam Baker was drafted to protect Matt Ryan's blind side. Thanks to injuries, ineffectiveness and poor luck, he hasn't been doing much of that of late, and that leaves him at a career crossroads entering 2015.
Baker's career arc is a deeply weird one, and his large contract seems even less defensible than it once did, thanks to injuries over the last two years. Baker started a combined 30 games from 2009 to 2010 and then started only six the next year, bouncing around positions as the team tried to find a place they were comfortable putting him.