MIAMI — Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre spent the last two seasons of his NFL career with Kevin Stefanski as his assistant quarterbacks coach with the Vikings in 2009-10, and knew then that the young coach was destined for big things.

“There are just some guys that you know before long they’re going to move up the ladder,’’ Favre told cleveland.com Friday in an exclusive interview at the Sirius XM set at radio row at the Super Bowl. “They’re doing what they can to jockey for position. I absolutely knew that he was one of them.’’

Stefanski, hired as the Browns head coach on Jan. 12, was only 27 at the time, and Favre was 40.

“He was really young but I really liked him,’’ said Favre, now a Sirius XM host. “Of course, I was much older than him. Not that that really matters either way. I can’t speak to what he’s like at this point, but I do know that he’s a very bright mind and he’s very likable and he loves what he’s doing.’’

Then-Vikings coach Brad Childress, a former Browns offensive coordinator, had enough confidence in Stefanski to pair him with Favre, who was already a 10-time Pro Bowler, a three-time NFL MVP and a Super Bowl Champion at that point.

“You’d better be sharp in that room, because those guys have most of the answers all the time and when they have questions, you need to be able to have answers for them,’’ Childress said.

In 2009, Favre guided the Vikings to a 12-4 record and a berth in the NFC Championship Game, where they lost 31-28 in overtime to the Saints. They ranked No. 2 in the NFL in scoring (29.4 points per game) and No. 5 in total offense (379.6 yards per game). Favre earned a 107.2 rating, second-highest in the NFL, throwing 33 touchdowns against only seven interceptions.

“How he’ll coach remains to be seen, but I’m not surprised by the hiring,’’ Favre, 50, said. “We send a message every once in awhile. I’m happy for him.’’

Favre, who retired after the 2010 season, believes Baker Mayfield will rebound this year under Stefanski, the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2019 and for the last four games of 2018.

“First and foremost with Baker, a coach can obviously play a big part, but ultimately you’ve got to figure it out yourself,’’ he said. “And focus on what you can do — and you only — and I think Baker’s a tremendous talent, I really do. And I think the Browns in general are loaded talent-wise and they just need to collectively as a group say like ‘This is what we’ve got to do. This is how we’re going to do it and that’s our focus, not all of the other stuff.’

"And I think Kevin will do a good job of stressing that. But it falls on deaf ears if they don’t follow through with it.’’

Mayfield, who tumbled to second-last in the NFL last season with a 78.8 rating and 59.4 completion percentage under Freddie Kitchens, grew up idolizing Favre and still does. Even though Mayfield struggled last season, Favre still sees some of himself in the young gunslinger.

“Yeah, I do,’’ Favre said. “He makes plays with his feet. Obviously buying time and he’s got really good enough arm strength to make just about all the throws. He’s creative, risky, which I was all of those. And he’s a winner. This past year was one that he wants to forget. But what I think will happen is it will be a great learning curve for him and he’ll bounce back very quickly.’’

Favre got a huge kick out of Mayfield famously re-enacting his draft day call from 26 years beforehand, jorts and all.

“That was clever,’’ he said.

“There are those people who are in your corner no matter what, you can’t do any wrong, even when you do wrong. And then there are those people that no matter what you do they’re going to dislike you and that’s not going to change.” - Brett Favre #DraftEve #MMO pic.twitter.com/6bCE9SxqI6 — Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) April 26, 2018

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