Steelers Injury Report: Heyward and Shazier added to a growing injury list for Pittsburgh

When the regular season came to a close, the Pittsburgh Steelers were one of the healthiest teams still vying for a playoff spot. At one point, they had only one player on their injury report, and several games where everyone who missed practice was simply listed as probable. Ah, those were the days.

Then the AFC Wild Card game against the Cincinnati Bengals came, and the good health went out the window. The Steelers left the game beaten and battered, but a missed Wednesday practice is far from being ruled out of the upcomig game Sunday against the top-seeded Denver Broncos.

Steelers DNP: WR Brown(concussion), LB Harrison(not injury related), DE Heyward(back), QB Ben(shoulder), LB Shazier(knee), RB Williams(foot)

— Mike Prisuta (@DVEMike) January 13, 2016

Steelers Limited Participation in Practice: S Golden (shoulder), FB Johnson (hamstring), LB Williams (hamstring).

— Mike Prisuta (@DVEMike) January 13, 2016

The list of players who didn't practice reads as this: Antonio Brown (concussion), James Harrison (day off), Cameron Heyward (back), Ben Roethlisberger (shoulder), Ryan Shazier (knee) and DeAngelo Williams (foot).

There is more to the injury report than that, as Robert Golden was limited with a shoulder injury, and joining him in such capacity was Will Johnson and Vince Williams, both nursing injured hamstrings.

The Steelers are mum on the status of Roethlisberger and Brown, but are confident all others who missed practice will be healthy enough to play this Sunday. In Roethlisberger's case, it comes down to functionality, where in Brown's case every head injury is a unique case in itself. Some heal after a week, some it takes months. You truly never know.

The issue with these injuries is just how much these players impact the game, and the outcome. Landry Jones is a far cry from Roethlisberger, just as Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton are no Brown. This was just the first practice of the week, and the Steelers will have two more (Thursday and Friday) to get some of these players back in the fold before traveling to Denver to play the Broncos.