CLEVELAND, Ohio — Joel Bitonio returning to the Browns for his 12th NFL season rather than retiring prompted a huge sigh of relief on Wednesday for many reasons.
There’s the obvious: At his best, Bitonio is one of the league’s top guards, a seven-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro, known for his strong pulling ability. And of course, he’s the longest-tenured player on the roster, a perennial captain, and de facto team leader.
His return is great for plenty of big picture reasons, as the Browns navigate another dramatic offseason following a 3-14 finish. But for the sake of this story, let’s talk about just what it means for the O-line — a position group that was embattled throughout 2024 and still has some question marks.
Bitonio’s return helps answer quite a few of them, though.
For starters, let’s begin with the guy lining up on Bitonio’s left.
It’s most likely going to be Dawand Jones that gets the first crack at the starting left tackle job. Jones started three games at left tackle this past season before a broken fibula ended his year.
The Browns liked what they saw in that small sample size. In 176 snaps at the position over those three games he started, Jones gave up no sacks and allowed only six total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus tracking data.
“He’s had some really good moments when he is out there,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said at the NFL Combine last week. “He’s played on the right side. He’s played on the left side, so we’ll see when we get there, but I want to get him healthy first.”
Jones is not only coming off the broken fibula, but also recently underwent arthroscopic surgery to clean up his surgically repaired right knee. He’s expected to be ready to go by the start of training camp.
The first two seasons of the Ohio State product’s career have ended due to injury, however, important to note heading into 2025. As a rookie, he first underwent surgery to repair his torn MCL, and missed the final nine games after an encouraging performance as the starting right tackle.
So if Jones does secure the starting job, the Browns will need a plan B there — and even if all is well with their 2023 fourth-round pick, the position is still going to be fairly new to him.
Who better than Bitonio to help Jones, or anyone else who may get starts there?
As for the rest of the line, it’s a veteran group, albeit one without a ton of long-term security going forward.
Center Ethan Pocic, who has been in Cleveland the last two seasons, is entering the final year of his contract.
Right tackle Jack Conklin has two years left on his deal, but no guaranteed money remaining.
Right guard Wyatt Teller is also back, entering the final year of his contract extension with no more guaranteed money left. The same goes for Bitonio.
But without Bitonio, this starting core would have had a lot more short-term questions plaguing it, on top of needing to also be thinking about the long-term. To answer one of them via Bitonio returning is huge.
Now under a new position coach in Mike Bloomgren, the position group will be looking for some redemption after facing a ton of injuries early in 2024 (there were seven different starting O-line combinations in the first eight games), and struggling against the run.
But Bitonio coming back alone should provide a much-needed morale boost ahead of this big project.
After 3-14, the fact that he’s choosing to come back when he has already accomplished plenty in the way of personal accolades does say something about the direction he believes this team and position group is heading.
If Bitonio, who has been through a rebuild before, and a 1-31 stretch that included the winless 2017 season, can still find a reason to keep playing, that should help every other player on the roster do the same.
There’s still a long way to go, and plenty to prove.
But for now, this brief sigh of relief thanks to Bitonio has been well-earned.
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com's Browns reporters.