Jared Allen didn’t know now-Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski when he arrived to the Minnesota Vikings in 2008 in a trade from the Kansas City Chiefs. But it didn’t take long for him to take notice of the 26-year-old assistant coach.

From 2006-08, Stefanski’s first three years in the NFL, no job was too big, no task was too trivial. In his role as the assistant to then-Vikings head coach Brad Childress, Stefanski coordinated “anything and everything,” as he put it, from where the video department should film practice to travel itineraries to setting up the talent show each year at training camp.

That proved to be perfect fodder for the skit Allen had prepared for the team. Using Stefanski, the All-Pro defensive end poked fun at Childress for being late to meetings and the various ways Stefanski fulfilled the “gofer” role for the head coach. Allen “pretended to be (Stefanski) dressed up in different outfits,” the pass rusher recalled. The skit was recorded for playback at the talent show.

Stefanski, however, had heard through the grapevine that he would be the subject of Allen’s skit.

And he would be ready for it.

Stefanski returns to Minnesota, the place that molded him for 13 years and laid the foundation for him to become one of the NFL’s rising head coaching stars, as the Browns take on the Vikings Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS).

Last year in his first season away from Minnesota, and first as a head coach, Stefanski guided the Browns to their first playoff appearance since 2002 and earned NFL Coach of the Year honors.

“It’s obviously a special place,” Stefanski said of Minnesota. “I had a great time there and was treated great by the organization from the ownership to the coaches and staff. Really have good friends there. With that being said, this is a really big game and they’re a good team so that has our full attention.”

Thirteen years ago, it was Allen who had Stefanski’s full attention.

While Allen was putting together his video skit, Stefanski was secretly preparing his own, taking the Vikings on a tour of Allen’s Minnesota State-Mankato “dorm room,” which Stefanski had plastered with boy-band posters.

“He then pretended to take my toothbrush and put it in some not-so-awesome places on the human body,” Allen said. “The video was -- oh, you think that’s funny? Payback’s a b.’”

Everyone in the crowd cracked up, none more than Allen himself.

“Kevin was always cool,” Allen said. “He was one of those guys that everybody liked. Got along with everybody, worked hard, all that good stuff. You knew he was going to be a good sport. And you expected him to answer how he did.”

‘He has no ego’

Because of how many tasks he successfully juggled as Childress’ assistant, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman gave Stefanski the nickname “Ned,” as in Ned Locke, the ringmaster on the popular 1960s and '70s children's program “Bozo’s Circus.”

His organization skills made it easy for him to handle multiple tasks as a time, like having to prepare an entire hotel banquet room for a team meeting before the Vikings played at Kansas City in 2007.

“Coach Childress liked to put little motivational speeches together the night before the games,” Vikings special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken said. “Kevin had to put a bunch of (motivational materials) underneath the chair on all of the chairs. And he threw out his back doing it the night before the game.”

Stefanski’s attention to detail didn’t go unnoticed. And he got his first shot at coaching in 2009, when he was promoted to assistant quarterbacks coach. Stefanski, Ficken, who was an assistant under Childress from 2007-10, and a handful of other young coaches worked in a tiny office affectionately referred to as the “fishbowl.”

These assistants would grind on whatever coaching assignment Childress doled out and spent long Tuesday nights assembling game-plan books for the coaches, often staying past midnight and returning before sunrise.

“I’m no different than a lot of people in terms of when you get that start, you start at the bottom, and you just have to work really hard,” Stefanski said of his early days in Minnesota. “You try to be a sponge and learn as much as you can in those moments.”

Stefanski shined by putting as much effort into helping Childress identify offensive trends as he did stuffing hundreds of papers into binders for the coaches.

Gradually, he worked his way up, as other coaches in Minnesota came and went. He coached tight ends, then running backs, before eventually becoming the quarterbacks coach in 2017. By the end of the 2018 season, he was named interim offensive coordinator, then landed the gig permanently in 2019.

“I’ve always thought Kevin to be so intelligent ... regardless of whatever role he was in,” said Browns wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea, who was an offensive assistant in Minnesota from 2006-08. “But he’s also always been one of the most humble people that I’ve ever worked with. His humility is really something that I noticed early. … He has no ego.”

‘He has not changed’

C.J. Ham credits Stefanski for being a big reason why he’s on the Vikings.

In 2016, the former Augustana University fullback participated in a pro day at the University of Minnesota. Ham caught the eye of Stefanski, who was then the Vikings’ running backs coach, and earned a tryout at Minnesota’s rookie minicamp.

Ham spent the 2016 season in Stefanski’s running backs’ room as a member of the practice squad. Having previously coached quarterbacks and tight ends before moving to the backfield, Stefanski’s knowledge of different aspects of the offense helped Ham learn the game at a higher level.

“He’s an extremely smart guy,” Ham said. “That’s why he is where he is now. That’s why through all the coaching changes with the Vikings he was that piece that stuck with every offensive coordinator that we had went through. That just shows you the type of coach he is, how much knowledge he has.”

Stefanski’s experience with different position groups in Minnesota has paid off in Cleveland.

“When you see him as a coach, the one thing you’re really impressed with is his knowledge of all positions,” O’Shea said. “Certain guys are in maybe at one position throughout their career. But Kevin’s been fortunate to take advantage of the opportunity to coach several positions. That’s something that really shows up in him as a coach. He’s got a great knowledge and ability to deal with all the different position groups.”

Stefanski, however, has stood out most with the way he’s managed quarterbacks.

Last year, he helped revive Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield’s career, challenging the 2018 No. 1 overall pick off the field while putting him in positions to succeed on it. Browns backup quarterback Case Keenum had a similar experience with Stefanski in Minnesota.

After being a journeyman his first five seasons in the league, Keenum got his shot in 2017 following a knee injury to Sam Bradford. With Stefanski as quarterbacks coach, Keenum thrived, culminated by the “Minneapolis Miracle," as Keenum found Stefon Diggs for a 61-yard touchdown pass as time expired, lifting the Vikings to a stunning playoff victory over the New Orleans Saints and sending them to the NFC Championship game.

“My time there was obviously very special. I learned a lot. I learned a lot from Kevin,” said Keenum, who signed with the Browns in 2020 shortly after Stefanski was named head coach. “That’s a big reason why I’m here today, is because of him and the time we spent together. I love playing for him. What’s cool is he’s the same guy, the same person that cares about people first. He has not changed.”

The several Browns assistants who worked with Stefanski over the years in Minnesota all agree. Stefanski still enjoys a good joke or prank. He still can juggle multiple tasks at once. And, above all, he never seems to lose his cool, no matter the moment.

Browns defensive backs coach Jeff Howard, whom Stefanski brought with him from Minnesota, still vividly remembers Stefanski’s stoic reaction immediately following the improbable victory over the Saints. While the rest of the Vikings assistants in the press box were going crazy celebrating and high-fiving, Stefanski barely reacted.

“We’re all losing our minds in the box -- we’re going to the NFC Championship!” recalled Howard, who was sitting right behind Stefanski. “And he’s just like the same. Calm, even-keeled.”

‘He let us be us’

Vikings running back Dalvin Cook calls Stefanski “my coach for life.” When Stefanski took over playcalling duties at the end of 2018 and was named offensive coordinator in 2019, he often played to the strengths of his personnel.

“I came into this thing and he told me, '33, we’re going to ride you,' and some games he’d ride me out,” Cook said.

Although Stefanski never played in the NFL, his players say he finds ways to relate to and bring out the best in them. Stefanski picked up a saying while in Minnesota, and repeated it during his first news conference after getting the job in Cleveland: "Personality is welcome. Your production is required.”

“He let us be us,” Cook said. “Being around the game and seeing so many personalities and stuff and knowing how to deal with players and stuff like that, I think that was his great trait. He knows how to deal with his players. He knows how to communicate with his players and knows how to turn us loose during the game. Knows how to put us in certain positions to go play free and win a game.”

That was one of the reasons quarterback Kirk Cousins was so excited to become a Viking. Stefanski had coached him, now-Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and now-Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore on the North Squad at the Senior Bowl in 2012.

“You could see that he was going places, he knew football, he was a good communicator,” said Cousins, who arrived in 2018. “So I was really excited when I signed in free agency that he was going to be my quarterback coach.”

All those qualities boil down to the same thing -- the respect he gives and has earned -- and was apparent within Stefanski even at the very start of his NFL coaching career.

“That’s the cool part of Kevin,” Allen said. “Certain coaches assistants are kind of dweebs and you view them differently. He was never that guy. He never overstepped his boundaries. He wouldn’t go and get in anybody’s face. You knew his work ethic, so as he advanced, you were happy for him. Everybody I knew was elated for him.”