PITTSBURGH — What is that stupid cliche about quarterbacks that goes something like, “If you have two quarterbacks, you really have none” or some nonsense like that?

Welcome to the Steelers version of that, which is, “If you lose two quarterbacks in one offseason, you really, really have none.”

I can’t think of a way the Steelers could have screwed up the quarterback position over the last three years worse than they actually have, and that is saying something.

The Steelers have taken every route to find one, and it has pretty spectacularly blown up in their face every time.

They went the draft choice route to get Kenny Pickett. Pickett is now on his third team in three seasons.

They went the trade route to get Justin Fields. Fields is now the starting quarterback of the Jets.

They went the free agent route and signed Russell Wilson and Mitch Trubisky. Well, one is starting for the Giants and the other is Josh Allen’s backup.

I mean, if we really want to throw this out there, they had Mason Rudolph start a few games, and he was drafted to be Ben Roethlisberger’s successor. I think Rudolph might actually be a good quarterback, but his career has been an incredibly bumpy ride.

I think they also have had Kyle Allen and Skylar Thompson bouncing around, but I am not sure because neither has been relevant enough to track his movements. Both are probably fine young fellas, but neither has made a dent in the Steelers quarterback situation.

Now it seems like the Steelers are hellbent on going one of two of the routes they have already traveled to fill their quarterback job this year. They are either going to go with the ancient retread in Aaron Rodgers or they are going to go with a back-to-the-future retread in Rudolph.

Maybe it will work for them, but then again, maybe there is a reason they have become the perennial “winning season without a playoff win” team that they are. It is hard to win big when you have average quarterback play, but it is even harder to win when you continue to play musical chairs with average or below-average quarterbacks.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I think about the Steelers quarterback situation, but I do know it has either been a spectacular study in failure or an incredible study in resiliency and perseverance.

If nothing else, the Steelers have shown they have the formula for how to overcome mediocre quarterback play and still make the playoffs. They have become not just good at this; they have become great.

And maybe that is the goal and the endgame — they want to be the best at something, and well, why not dominate this category? Maybe this can be a new motto: “Hey, we used to win Super Bowls, but now we buck the trend by finding ways to win while churning through a who’s who of journeyman quarterbacks every year!”

I digress.

The most disturbing thing isn’t that they are waiting around to see if Rodgers is willing to take a break from his nature meditations or whatever the heck he is doing to actually come back for another year and play quarterback. I actually believe if Rodgers is the guy, he will do a good enough job that the Steelers will once again be 9-8, 10-7 or whatever and have a chance to get to the playoffs.

Frankly, though, I don’t think it would be much different with Rudolph because I just don’t think Rodgers is going to find his fountain of youth and become the guy he was five or six years ago. I think he will be good enough but not quite good enough, which is the story of the Steelers quarterback position in recent years.

No, the disturbing thing isn’t that the Steelers are waiting for a 41-year old; it is that there is no real plan in place beyond this year. I mean it would be kind of entertaining to see whom the Steelers can sign as their stopgap quarterback every season, but sooner or later, that will become tiresome. And if signing a stopgap quarterback keeps you floating barely above water and always drafting in the second half of the first round, is it really the route the Steelers want to go long term?

I know, I know — “never had a losing season” and all that stuff, but I would trade the last time the Steelers had a losing season and its aftermath for pretty much every year they have had since their last AFC championship game appearance in 2016.

The Steelers’ last losing season was 2003 when they went 6-10, and magically, the sky didn’t fall and the Steelers didn’t slide into the bowels of purgatory, which is what some people around here act as though would happen if the “nonlosing season” streak comes to an end. I say they shouldn’t tank, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if they had a disaster of a season and got a high draft pick for next year.

Alas, they won’t. They will again be 9-8 or 10-7 and pick somewhere in the 20s, which means they will again have no shot at a legitimate first-round quarterback to build around for the next decade or so. And then that means regardless of who it is — Rodgers or Rudolph — the Steelers will be searching for another stopgap quarterback next year to keep this vicious cycle alive.

That’s why I am not sure whether the Steelers’ handling of this quarterback situation has been a study in incompetence or a study in the ability to continue to defy the odds by making the playoffs every year — barely — despite mediocrity and incompetence from the most important position on the field.

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