Steelers Injury Report: Antwon Blake and Mike Mitchell availability could be in question

The Pittsburgh Steelers now try to get beyond their abysmal performance in Week 16 to the Baltimore Ravens, and start looking ahead to the Cleveland Browns in Week 17. Despite having a rather healthy team moving into their last regular season game of 2015, there are two members of the team's secondary who's participation might be in jeopardy due to injury.

When Mike Tomlin met with the media at his Tuesday press conference, he confirmed both Antwon Blake and Mike Mitchell could miss the early practices in the week's preparation for the Browns.

Mitchell's injured shoulder has not been breaking news as the safety has been nursing the injury since the Week 14 game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field. It seems every week is another re-occurrence of the same injury, but Mitchell has shown toughness playing through the injury.

As for Blake, he left the game against the Ravens with back spasms, which could limit him not only in practice, but also in the game Sunday. Most fans view Blake's absence as an "addition by subtraction" scenario which will have Ross Cockrell starting on the outside opposite of William Gay, with Brandon Boykin to man the slot when teams deploy multiple wide receiver sets.

The Steelers first practice of the week will be Wednesday as they prepare for a 1:00 p.m. EDT kickoff in Cleveland.