Ben Roethlisberger invited the team's offensive skill position players to go with him to his home in rural Georgia.
Mike Tomlin took the team to Topgolf, skipping one of the scheduled OTA sessions.
Cam Heyward held a cookout at his home for the entire team following the final OTA session Thursday.
The Steelers are taking this team-building stuff pretty seriously.
Coming off a season in which the team's leadership was questioned not just by a couple of former players, but a number of national pundits, the Steelers enjoyed a quiet OTA session.
"We’ve been attacked from all different angles this offseason, so we’ve all just got to stick together and have each other’s backs," Roethlisberger said.
That's what the offseason program has been all about. There were no signs of discontent. The stories didn't revolve around the players who weren't there or were angry about salary disputes.
It was business as usual -- or at least what it used to be -- for the Steelers.
Forget the past few summers of discontent, punctuated by Le'Veon Bell contract negotiations or Antonio Brown scolding the press -- as he did last spring -- for paying attention to what he does off the field when he seemingly posts every last minute of his off-field life on social media.
After a tumultuous 2018 that saw them finish at 9-6-1 and out of the playoffs for the first time since 2014, the Steelers this year are doing everything but sitting around a campfire and singing "Kumbaya."
"They’re all great," cornerback Steven Nelson, one of the team's big offseason signings, told me of his new teammates as the Steelers wrapped up their final OTA session Thursday.
"That’s just the atmosphere we have here. Cam Heyward said we can all come over to his house for a cookout after practice. Things like that, it makes a team stronger for sure."
Carrying that feeling into next week's mandatory minicamp -- which runs Tuesday through Thursday -- is key for the team. To this point, everything the Steelers have done has been voluntary. Next week, even the small handful of guys who have been missing will be on hand.
But there haven't been many. David DeCastro missed the sessions while staying home with his wife and a newborn child. Joe Haden attended the first week of OTAs but missed later sessions. Sean Davis and Stephon Tuitt were missing early but have been regular participants in the past week.
"I’m excited. I think we have a great team," Haden said. "I think we’ve got a bunch of guys that are buying into each other. That’s what it takes to win football games."
That and talent. And despite the defection of Bell in free agency and the trade of Brown, the Steelers still have plenty. Eleven players on the current roster have appeared in or been voted to a Pro Bowl.
And the team has been working hard to incorporate its big offseason additions -- Nelson at cornerback, rookie Devin Bush and veteran Mark Barron at inside linebacker, and Donte Moncrief at receiver.
Despite those additions to an already talented roster, the team is flying under the radar in terms of outside expectations, such as this prognostication from Maurice Jones-Drew on NFL Network.
.@akbar_gbaja and @mjd have VERY different ideas on how the @steelers season will play out ??? pic.twitter.com/G3d5B6ESRk
— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) June 6, 2019
That's fine with the Steelers. They've become accustomed to being the hunted. Now, they get to be the hunter.
"It's not what usually happens here," Haden said. "This team is accustomed to having that target on its back. Now, we can just relax and play ball."
That's been the idea thus far. The practice sessions have not only been well attended, they've been spirited. Perhaps even more importantly, they've been without incident or injury.
And the drama has been left for the theater.
“The chemistry is on point," said JuJu Smith-Schuster. "Everyone is on the same page. Everyone is on point. There is no drama in the locker room.”
