CLEVELAND, Ohio — Brad Childress has already told Bears coach Matt Nagy that he’s not returning in 2020 as his senior offensive assistant, presumably to retire, Childress told cleveland.com.

But he acknowledged there’s at least a remote possibility he’d come back to Cleveland and help his protege Kevin Stefanski in his first season as Browns head coach if he reaches out.

“I’d have to wait till we we cross that bridge,’’ Childress said. “I think the world of Kevin and that’s not out there right now. Getting into hypotheticals is really hard for a football coach.’’

He added that a similar role to what he played for Nagy is “not out of the question, but I doubt it pretty much. I think he’s got his eye on some people that he has an interest in.’’

Childress, 63, already delayed retirement in 2018 when he agreed to be an offensive analyst for Nagy in his first season as a head coach. Last season, he stuck around as senior offensive advisor, but his contract is up next month.

Stefanski, 37, is in the process of hiring his staff, and some think he’ll try to pry his 2019 offensive advisor Gary Kubiak, who won a Super Bowl as head coach of the Broncos, away from Minnesota. But Vikings coach Mike Zimmer won’t make it easy.

Kubiak helped Stefanski in his first year as coordinator this year. The Vikings went 10-6, quarterback Kirk Cousins had one of his best seasons, and the Vikings earned a wild-card berth in the playoffs, where they beat the Saints. They lost in the divisional round, 27-10, to the 49ers.

Childress said it’s invaluable to have a trusted sounding board on the staff.

“It’s just important to be able to go and shut the door when I was with Andy [Reid] and say ‘Coach, are we really going to do this? Are we really going to penalize this guy and not take him on a trip because he walked here in a minute late?' It’s good to have somebody that can do that.’’

Childress spent one season here in 2012 under Pat Shurmur, but they were all fired at the end of the year after the Haslams bought the team in October.

“I remember like it was yesterday,’’ Childress said. “We were having a meeting right before we went out for two-a-days (in training camp), five minutes before, somebody comes running down and says ‘Coach wants to get together.’ I’m like, ‘We met last night. What in the world does Pat want?’ He came in and he goes ‘Guys, I want you to hear it from me. Randy Lerner just sold the team. A guy named Jimmy Haslam just bought it. He’s here today with his dad and his family. I didn’t know anything about it, and I want to make sure nobody else told you but me. With that, let’s go. We’ve got to go out and do individual here in about five minutes.’ "

Childress said, “It was a classic. Yeah, it’s a surprising way to start.’’

If Stefanski calls on him, he might decide to finish what he started.

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