Offensive coordinator Todd Haley will spend the time away from the players taking a good, long look at how the Steelers' offense performed in the first half of the season.
He'll look for tendencies in his play-calling, how defenses are defending the Steelers in certain situations and he'll analyze what the team needs to do moving forward to be better.
And he'll look at how the Steelers can better incorporate receiver Martavis Bryant into the offense.
Despite a 6-2 start for the Steelers, Bryant was largely a non-factor in the first half, catching just 18 passes for 234 yards and one touchdown.
For a player who was one of the top deep threats in the league in his first two seasons, it's not the kind of output anyone expected, even though Bryant missed all of last season while serving a year-long suspension for violation of the NFL substance abuse policy.
"I think he looks better. Physically and from a route standpoint, there has been growth," Haley said Wednesday of Bryant. "The range of routes he's able to run as opposed to what he was doing two years ago, I think he's better.
"He's physically stronger. He's just as fast or faster but he's catching the ball well in practice and that improved route tree are all important signs of things happening. It's just now got to happen on the field in a game."
Of course, it's hard to do that when you're not on the field, as Bryant was not last week when the Steelers played the Lions. He was benched by Mike Tomlin for one game for some negative social media posts, which included taking a shot at rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Haley said he anticipates Bryant will be back in the lineup when the Steelers return from their bye week Nov. 12 at Indianapolis.
Ben Roethlisberger thinks that will be the case, as well, and said he looks forward to getting the speedy, 6-foot-4 Bryant more involved in the offense.
"Absolutely, I am. I’m excited," Roethlisberger told 93.7 The Fan Wednesday. "I think he’s going to have a great second half. I need to have a great second half. If we do that, I think we can be a successful offense."
With Bryant watching in street clothes from the bench against Detroit, Smith-Schuster had a breakout game, catching seven passes for 193 yards, including a team-record 97-yard touchdown catch.
It was a breakout game for the second-round draft pick, one that many feel could help motivate Bryant.
"Potentially," Roethlisberger conceded. "It’s all how Martavis wants to take the game. I will say this, too, a lot of Juju’s catches didn’t come at Martavis’ position. Even when Martavis is playing, JuJu works inside a lot. That big touchdown, that was not Martavis’ position.
"We can’t sit here and say, ‘OK, look what he did and Martavis didn’t do.' He was catching balls at different positions. It’s not quite the same. It’s all how Martavis wants to take it. Does he want to say, ‘He had a big game, let me step my game up.’"
That's the attitude the Steelers hope Bryant will take to help him return to the form he showed in 2014 and 2015. In his first 21 career games, he caught 76 passes for 1,314 yards and 14 touchdowns.
But he hasn't caught a touchdown pass since Week 2, when he had three receptions for 91 yards against Minnesota. In the two weeks leading up to his social media blowup, he had just five passes thrown his way, catching three for 30 yards.
Bryant's agent expressed interest in a trade, but with the deadline passing Tuesday and the Steelers declining to even consider moving the receiver, Bryant is here for at least the remainder of the season.
Instead of practicing Wednesday, Tomlin took the players to Dave and Buster's as part of a team-building exercise. They will be off until Monday, when they return to practice to start getting ready to play the Colts.
"I just want to see continued growth," Haley said of Bryant. "I've said all along he's been real close. He's made some big plays for us. (I'm) not taking into account some of the outside things that I don't worry about. We coach the guys that are on the field. He had a good week last week in the role he was playing from a practice standpoint. That was positive. He had a good practice (Tuesday)."