Tell you what … the players were right. No matter when the bye week falls on the schedule, it always comes at a welcome time. It was nice to have the past few days off, away from the office. Caught a little bit of NFL action yesterday, and even had a chance to watch rugby's world cup (congrats to the All Blacks of New Zealand!).

This week, though, it's all about the Black and Gold of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are 5-2 after a convincing road win over the Arizona Cardinals. Just wrapped up a slate of conference calls with the Bills (head coach Belichick and offensive coordinator O'Brien) and player personnel boss Nick Caserio. Not a whole lot of news came out of those discussions, however.

While the coaches and staff are back at the stadium already, the players don't have to return till tomorrow. Tuesday, as you know, is normally their day off, but after five straight days of leisure, they have an unorthodox work week. But they'll need it to get back in a football frame of mind.

Here's what you can expect from Team PFW this week. We have access to players and practice tomorrow and Thursday, and, of course, patriots.com radio starting at noon. Wednesday and Friday are the same, plus a BB presser and minus the radio on Friday.

Thursday night at 7:30, you can catch PFW TV on Comcast SportsNet New England.

Saturday, Fred and I leave with the team for Pittsburgh. Andy and Paul stick around to host the Pre-Game Social on the Patriots Facebook page (2-4 p.m. Eastern) and I'll cook up a new PFW Postcard either before the game or the next day, depending on what happens on the trip.

Going to enjoy the remaining hours of this bye week before catching up with you all again tomorrow here on the blog and in the Twitter-verse.