CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns legend Joe Thomas holds the Hall of Fame checklist, and he’s ticking plenty of boxes next to his former teammate’s name.
To join Thomas in Canton one day, Cleveland left guard Joel Bitonio needs to be one of the best players at his position. “Joel certainly checks that off,” Thomas says.
Bitonio must play long enough to make an impact, “which Joel has obviously done,” Thomas says.
But here comes the hard part.
“The challenge is here, with O-linemen, you don’t have stats,” Thomas told Cleveland.com last month. “So you can’t really fall back on that other than Pro Bowls and All Pros. And obviously if you’re on a team that wins a Super Bowl or you’re on successful teams with good running backs, quarterbacks, you get a little bit more notoriety.
“Joel’s had Nick Chubb, but other than that, he hasn’t really had the great team success that would make him a household name. So that’s tricky and through no fault of his own, but it’s just part of playing.”
Part of playing in Cleveland, at least. Since Bitonio’s rookie season (2014), only three teams (Giants, Jets, Jaguars) have won fewer games than his Browns (64). Cleveland ranks 29th in playoff wins (one) during the same span. And few know Bitonio’s pain better than Thomas, who played 11 seasons in Cleveland without a postseason run.
Thomas’s career included six times as many All-Pro selections (six) and ten times as many Pro Bowls (10) as winning seasons (one). He found his way into the Hall, anyway, and he sees a similar path for his pal.
But Thomas’ vote won’t count when the time comes. Nope. To memorialize his career, Bitonio must convince a panel of seasoned reporters who, with due respect, might not know how to parse his greatness.
Outside of players and coaches, how many football observers can separate a good guard from a great one? Or, even harder, the greatest from the greats? Even Thomas admits it’s a tough task, to the point where he suggested voters use Pro Football Focus grades to help inform their choices. Or maybe the hall could start an O-line specific committee of former players and coaches to evaluate tape.
Either way, Thomas thinks we could use more context when evaluating each linemen’s case. As things stand, we count and compare the limited accolades available to us, then make career-defining decisions. And sometimes we choose the wrong resume bullet points.
“Honestly, if you’re not a quarterback, I don’t think wins should matter (for HOF candidacy),“ Thomas said. ... Your left guard, he has some impact on wins and losses, clearly, or you wouldn’t pay the position at all. But you don’t have enough of an impact where it should matter at all.”
What should count? Well, Cleveland.com tallied 14 Pro Football Hall of Famers during the Super Bowl era who counted guard as their primary position. Three have fewer Pro Bowl appearances than Bitonio. Three more made as many or fewer All-Pro appearances. Four played 12 or fewer seasons. Bitonio just began Year 12.
And Thomas, who owns the NFL record for consecutive snaps played, also values Bitonio’s 6,846-snap streak from 2017 to 2023.
See? the Browns guard’s resume pops if you peer close enough. That is, until we start appraising the parts that shouldn’t matter.
Among the same sample of Hall of Fame guards, all 14 appeared in at least three playoff games during their career (13 appeared in seven or more). Six won a Super Bowl, and three more played in one. Never say never, but as the Browns enter another rebuilding phase — sorry, re-tooling phase — amid Bitonio’s age 34 season, the smart money says he’ll never sniff a championship (assuming he stay with Cleveland).
Joel Bitonio Average of HOF guards in Super Bowl Era
Pro Bowls: 6 Pro Bowls: 8.4 (three with fewer than six)
All Pros: 2 All Pros: 4.5 (three with two or fewer)
Playoff games: 3 Playoff games: 11.2 (13 of 14 inductees with seven or more)
The Browns would never blame Bitonio for their shortcomings. But voters?
“Wins are something that you can say about somebody that is a definitive, empirical data point,” Thomas said. “Nobody’s going to say it’s not good to be a Super Bowl champion or whatever level of team success you were.
“And the other thing is, historically, voters have liked to put in a lot of players from the great teams, the dynasty teams. It makes sense. If you’re on a great team and you’re a great player, you probably had some type of impact.
“It’s harder to point to exactly what that is, but certainly the Green Bay Packer teams of the early Super Bowl era ... they got a lot of guys that made it in because they had great teams. And generally speaking, it makes sense like, hey, we want to have a lot of those guys represented to tell the story of the NFL and tell the story of this great dynasty.”
Bitonio’s story is harder to write, particularly at a position where the job is to blend in. Besides a pancake block, the best thing a guard can do on film is play ghost. Stand your ground, engage your defender; to push them two feet backward is to win your matchup.
From this perspective, few players “win” more often than Bitonio. Thomas says that Bitonio’s fundamentals rarely slip, that steadiness can be a superpower, too. In fact, Bitonio’s consistency reminds Thomas of somebody.
“I think all the things I prided myself on, Joel is kind of that version at guard, if I can look at it like that, because he never gets beat,” Thomas said. “He’s always in the right spot. He’s a great leader. I think he does a really good job run (blocking) and pass (blocking) He’s very athletic. He can move people off the ball. I mean, he’s exactly what you’d want as a NFL guard.”
And yet, Pro Football Reference paints guard-sized Thomas as a Hall of Fame longshot. Entering his career twilight — Bitonio considered retirement after last season — the left guard lags behind on PFR’s “Hall of Fame Monitor Score,” which measures players’ future candidacy.
As of this writing, Bitonio’s score is 49.5, over 50 points behind the average Hall of Fame guard (105.71). Among inductees at his position, Bitonio counts former Rams guard Tom Mack (score: 59.5) as his closest company. Among contemporaries, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins sports a 50.77.
And with due respect, we know Cousins won’t wear a gold jacket.
Bitonio’s case? Less clear, for both better and worse. Because he plays guard, it might be harder for an all-in-one counting stat to quantify his career. But because he plays guard, it might be harder for voters to separate him from other candidates.
His best hope: The Hall values longevity without penalizing his loyalty. Wouldn’t hurt to add a few blocking experts to the voting committee, either.
But even then, external factors can interfere. Timing matters. Bitonio’s ballot mates can change depending on his retirement date (players become eligible five years after their last). Those ballot mates play a role, too.
“It’s not that it’s a popularity contest,” Thomas said, “but notable people tell the story. The Hall of Fame I’ve always been told is like, Hey, we’re trying to tell the story of the NFL.”
Fair or not, blockers make less interesting characters than ball-carriers. They lack stats, starring roles, highlight supercuts. If they’re playing well, you barely notice them, especially on a Browns-sized stage.
Thomas thinks his friend belongs, anyway. Big platforms be darned. His vote doesn’t count, and Cleveland isn’t helping Bitionio’s case.
But if it takes a Hall of Famer to know one, then Thomas’ checklist should hold some weight.
“... He is a hall of famer in my book,” Thomas said. “I think the challenge, as a lineman, there should be more of us in, but we get in when there’s not a quarterback that’s a no brainer, when there’s not a pass catcher that’s a no brainer.”
“...Even when I was going in, if it was me versus (Tom) Brady and (Peyton) Manning and (Phillip) Rivers and (Drew) Brees, if all these guys are available are eligible in the same year ... there’s no way that a guy like Manning or Brees is not going to get on the first ballot. Guys that have done it at glamor positions, they’re going to get in before we do. So that’s just the way it is.”
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