SteeleRuss is coming back to Denver this year. Lucky us.

Surprise! Justin Fields will be coming, too, with the Steelers and Russell Wilson for the game against the Broncos.

Plots do congeal.

The Broncos, curiously, may have just rejected Fields a second time. GM George Paton could have selected the former Buckeyes QB at the ninth spot in the first round of the 2021 draft. Instead, Paton opted for Patrick Surtain II. Two picks later the Bears took Fields.

Almost instantly Surtain became one of the league’s premier cornerbacks. Just as immediately Fields became the Bears starting quarterback.

But Fields, an exceptional runner and an excruciating passer, is persona non grata in Chicago now that the Bears possess the No. 1 overall choice, who will be Caleb Williams. Fields could be had by the Broncos for, as it turns out, a lowly 2025 pick. The Broncos didn’t care, didn’t contact Chicago, didn’t want Fields, didn’t do due diligence or don’t know what they are doing. They also refused to sign any free agent quarterback.

So Fields joins Wilson in Pittsburgh. Perhaps Wilson, with a one-year minimum contract, will be a bridge over one of the three rivers and mentor Fields. Or maybe Wilson is as shocked as everyone else that the Steelers traded away Kenny Pickett and traded for Fields.

Yet, it is certain that if the Broncos had chosen Fields three years ago, Wilson never would been acquired by the franchise in the most farcical, foolish, rotten, no-good trade in the team’s and NFL history.

Meanwhile, the strategy of Broncos Brainburst triumvirate Sean Payton-George Paton-Greg Penner is leading the franchise directly down the path to tragedy.

The Broncos obviously are worse in mid-March than they were in late November.

Eleven players who were with the Broncos during the five-game winning streak last season have been released, traded or departed as unrestricted free agents.

The Broncos signed three new ordinary defensive veterans – and resigned their kicker and three of their own fringe free agents.

The three P’s again didn’t ask my advice, but All-Pro and All-Person Justin Simmons is worth his presence and $18.25 million contract more than all the $22 million for 2024 combined salaries to Brandon Jones, Malcolm Roach, Cody Barton, Wil Lutz, Lil ‘Jordan Humphrey, Adam Troutman and Michael Burton.

The Broncos couldn’t even get a sixth, a seventh or a safety for Simmons.

According to three national websites that grade the NFL teams’ off-season moves, the Broncos have received a league lowest “F’’, a “D’’ and a “D+’’

Notice that Sean, George and Greg haven’t been seen or heard during recent developments.

How about a Broncos-Steelers confrontation on Thanksgiving, the eve of Wilson’s 36th birthday?

And the troika decided to take the $53 million hit on the $85 mil dead-cap lightning strike in 2024, which mean they don’t expect to contend.

The Broncos have avoided articulating aloud the obscene word “rebuild’’, but they definitely are under construction.

As Paton admitted a month ago, the Broncos would not participate in the “first wave’’ of free-agent signings as they did last year. They didn’t appear in the “second wave’’, either. They emerged for a “ripple’’ and landed three nice fellows you’ve never heard of. Roach played for, you guessed it, the Saints and Payton. In four seasons he started five games. Jones, a Dolphins backup safety, started 13 games in ’21, but only 13 the past two seasons. Barton spent four seasons in Seattle and one in Washington, but didn’t play more often than 13 games.

The Broncos were, ahem, Walmart shoppers.

The newbies will not make anybody forget Simmons, who started 108 games with the Broncos and had 30 interceptions, 602 tackles and dozens of charity events. People do want to forget Jeudy, another epic wasted No. 1 selection.

The Broncos have become accustomed to being annual also-rans in the NFL, and the prospects of even reaching a .500 season are suspect. So, the only capital letters and exclamation mark to contemplate: QUARTERBACK!

PP&P must draft a superlative and eventual Super Bowl quarterback. But doesn’t anyone here trust them?

Otherwise, the Broncos will remain a peripheral irrelevant sideshow, as the Rockies, to the main championship attractions – the Nuggets and the Avalanche.

Payton reveres his own QB IQ and is surrounded by former quarterbacks. They certainly realize “Sparky” Stidham is no solution.

Caleb, Jayden, Drake, J.J., Bo, Spencer, Michael or Michael?

Which one? Pick one, Broncos. But he better be the right 1 — a quarterback who will win the Russell Retribution Reunion (with Justin Fields along for the ride) at Mile High this season.