Browns' Joel Bitonio has turned into one of NFL's best guards (2024)

As a rookie in 2014, Browns guard Joel Bitonio played inside of future Hall of Fame tackle Joe Thomas and next to center Alex Mack, now a six-time Pro Bowler playing in his 13th NFL season. As far on-the-job training goes, that was like hitting the trench wisdom lottery.

As far as Bitonio later sharing a paragraph with those two in the franchise record books, well, it’s been a journey. Last weekend, Bitonio joined Thomas, Mack and Orpheus Roye in becoming just the fourth player of the team’s new era to reach 100 starts. Only 12 players since 1999 have even suited up in 100 games for the Browns.

Bitonio’s had a lot of teammates. And a lot of coaches. He’s seen a lot in his eight seasons, and because of that, there was a bit of awkwardness involved with any celebration of the milestone last week. That’s partly because few involved with the current Browns team are much interested in diving too far into the team’s rancid past, and it’s partly because Bitonio has never been comfortable talking about himself, let alone crowing about something he’s done. But it’s mostly because reflection can wait.

Then, now and in between, Bitonio has been a really good football player — and no one is writing Bitonio’s football eulogy yet. In fact, Thomas told The Athletic that task may eventually fall to someone in Canton.

“I think Joel could be a Hall of Famer if he continues in the direction he’s headed,” Thomas said. “He’s the best guard in football and he’s really been that for a few years now. There’s nobody else who can pull and move the way he does to (throw blocks) on the outside who can also anchor and pass block like Joel can. He’s in a class of his own.”

A powerful craftsman who runs like a fullback in leading many of the Browns’ power and counter plays, Bitonio is working on his fourth straight Pro Bowl appearance. From Wednesdays to Fridays, his voice is often as impactful as the blocks he throws on Sundays. There’s value, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski says, in everything Bitonio explains to his younger teammates and everything he’s experienced.

“All of those things, yes,” Stefanski said. “He is playing at a really high level. Joel is doing a nice job in the run game and the pass game. He is very dependable and playing a very physical brand of football.”

There’s a tiny bit of gray in Bitonio’s bushy beard, perhaps a subtle souvenir of Browns seasons past. But his 30th birthday falling last Monday, a day after his milestone 100th start, was only a footnote to a weekend that included just the second chance of his pro career to play in his native Southern California. It’s been a pretty wild ride for a player who went to Nevada as a two-star recruit and the 147th-ranked prospect in California in the high school class of 2009.

“I feel good,” Bitonio said last week. “I’m getting up there in age, I guess, by football standards, but I feel good. I’m in a good place and it really is a privilege and honor to play this game. I feel young still. I’m (like) the weird old guy, but I’m 30. I’m ready to go out there and play. I do feel like I’m playing well and I do feel like it’s been a good start to the season.”

Through five games, Pro Football Focus rates Bitonio as the second-best guard in football. PFF has ranked him among the NFL’s 10 best interior linemen before each of the last four seasons, and Thomas’ scouting report lists several reasons why.

“Tough, physical, smart, hard-working … Joel is all those things,” Thomas said. “Unique attention to detail. He overcame those early injuries to become an ironman in his own right. Natural leader. Feel free to (stop me) because I could continue with the glowing remarks about Joel.

“He’s one of the few guys who was here for the tough times, and I’m so happy for him that he’s experiencing the joys of success now.”

When Stefanski spoke about Bitonio last week, he said that upon taking the job in early 2020, he went back to 2014 and watched Bitonio play in then-coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s zone run scheme for an idea of how an older, more seasoned Bitonio might fit in Stefanski’s offense. That answer, obviously, is pretty darn well. When Browns offensive line coach Bill Callahan met Bitonio, one of Callahan’s first thoughts was that he was essentially talking to another coach.

“Joel is well prepared, he is smart (and he) is a great note-taker,” Callahan said. “He is an intense film-looker. He looks at film day in and day out. He comes back in with questions. The dialogue between us is interesting because he will say, ‘Hey, did you look at this, Coach? Did you see this guy? Did you see where they put this end over me instead of on the outside in certain situations?’ The dialogue is really good, but his work ethic … he’s one of the hardest-working guards in the league.

“He ranks right up there with some of the great players that I have had in the past. From that standpoint — the work ethic, the smarts and of course the performance — it all ties in.”

Some of Bitonio’s appreciation for his journey comes from the rocky start his career endured. The 2014 Browns were bullying teams up front in much the same way the 2020 and 2021 versions have before Mack got hurt at midseason and things unraveled. The next year, Bitonio suffered an ankle injury and missed the final six games of another season that went south quickly. The dreaded Lisfranc foot injury five games into 2016 again sidelined Bitonio, but the Browns never lost faith. He signed a big extension prior to the 2017 season, and he hasn’t missed a single regular-season snap since.

“When you go through the start of my career, getting hurt in back-to-back years was tough,” Bitonio said. “It gets in your head. I wondered, ‘Am I ever gonna stay healthy?’ Those were very unfortunate, unlucky situations. Unlucky plays. Before that, I’d never missed any games.”

It was cruel that being on the COVID-19/reserve list kept him home for the first playoff game of his career last January, but he’s back — and he’s arguably been even better this season. It’s fair to assume the six players left from the Browns’ winless 2017 team enjoy the team’s change of fortune as much as anyone. And Bitonio savors his current streak of starts as well as the chance to be one of the wise, old guys in the locker room, just like the two who helped tutor him in his rookie season were.

“The whole 100 games thing is a pretty cool honor,” Bitonio said. “Not just that there are only four of us here, but anytime you put on the helmet, it’s an honor. It’s a privilege to play this game. To put on the helmet for the 100th time, it’s pretty dang cool, man. A lot of memories in there.

“It kind of goes quick. I heard about it a couple weeks ago and feels like yesterday I was just getting back out here and getting things started. It’s just a special achievement of longevity and being with the team, and hopefully, I have a lot more starts, too.”

(Photo: John McCoy / Getty Images)

Zac Jackson is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Cleveland Browns. He is also the host of the "A to Z" podcast alongside Andre Knott. Previously, Zac covered the Browns for Fox Sports Ohio and worked for Pro Football Talk. Follow Zac on Twitter @AkronJackson