Pittsburgh Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers and head coach Mike McCarthy are reuniting for McCarthy’s first season in Pittsburgh. It’s been one of the biggest stories this offseason.

But SI’s Matt Verderame doesn’t see things working out when the season rolls around. Verderame ranked every coach/QB pairing in the NFL, placing McCarthy and Rodgers at No. 21 in the NFL.

“If this were 2010, we’d be talking about one of the top five pairings in the league. Instead, it’s ’26, and the Steelers might have a championship roster held back by this duo.”

McCarthy was ranked as the No. 16 head coach and Rodgers the No. 20 quarterback. It’s a 15-spot drop from last season, when the Mike Tomlin/Aaron Rodgers duo was ranked No. 6 by SI.

Verderame added that McCarthy is a “good coach who has fallen short of expectations,” while there’s no reason to think Rodgers “will suddenly revert to his four-time MVP form.”

Rodgers had his struggles last season, but he also provided the Steelers stability and the best quarterback play the team has had since Ben Roethlisberger. There were flashes of his prior self, but he’s not going to suddenly return to an MVP level. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t the best option at quarterback for the Steelers, and there’s no reason to think he can’t lead the team to the postseason yet again.

Reuniting with McCarthy gives both sides a sense of familiarity in what’s been an offseason of change in Pittsburgh. Tomlin was universally regarded as one of the league’s best head coaches, but his lack of recent playoff success was a big problem with the Steelers.

For a team with a veteran core, McCarthy provides the ability to help win now. He’s had success with both the Packers and the Cowboys.

While Rodgers isn’t still an MVP-caliber quarterback, I don’t necessarily agree that the Rodgers/McCarthy pairing will hold this team back from a Super Bowl. It feels far too early to make that assumption, and it also feels a bit of a reach to call the rest of the team a “championship roster.”

The Rodgers/McCarthy pairing feels a little bit too low on this list, sandwiched between Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield at No. 22 and Kevin O’Connell and Kyler Murray at No. 20.

Last year, the Tomlin/Rodgers pairing was worse than the sixth-best in the league. The Steelers will hope the McCarthy/Rodgers one can far exceed the No. 21 placement.