Albert Breer’s Notes: How Joel Bitonio Survived ‘Brutal Stretches’ With the Browns

It’s a big week with 18 teams hosting mandatory minicamps, so let’s get to the latest news and notes.

Cleveland Browns

Joel Bitonio is retiring after a dozen years in Cleveland, and it’d be tough as a seven-time Pro Bowler not to have the utmost respect for what he did over that time as a Brown.

I remember having a conversation with Bitonio late in the 2023 season, as a team he captained that started five different quarterbacks, none for more than six games, made an improbable run to the playoffs. That was his 10th year in the league. He was in Johnny Manziel’s draft class. He’d been around for the Baker Mayfield and the Deshaun Watson trades, so he had an appreciation for what he and his team were doing.

“We’ve talked before about it, but I’ve been through some brutal stretches of losing games,” he told me. “It makes football not fun. You go through these moments—it is not what you’re playing the game for. It makes moments like this mean more, games like this where we’re playing meaningful football in December, and ‘Hey, we win games, we’re going to play in January. We have a chance to keep playing football.’

“There were so many times in my career when I've been out of it by December, and you’re just trying to survive and trying to find a way to make it through the season. Now it’s like, we’re trying to thrive here. We’re trying to make things happen. Guys like David Njoku and Myles [Garrett], and even our long snapper Charley [Hughlett], who’s been here with me for 10 years. These ones feel good.”

It’s a shame he didn’t get to experience more of them.

But it’s also cool that he saw value in wearing one jersey his entire career, and in answering the bell every single time he physically could, regardless of the circumstances. In the farewell letter on the team website, he credited ironmen like Joe Thomas, Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz for setting a tone for him.

Now, he’s certainly doing the same for others—after an injury-marred start to his career, Bitonio missed only two games over the last nine years (playing in 147 of 149 regular-season games), breaking the “New Browns” (going back to the franchise’s reentry to the league in 1999) record for career starts, and at one point playing in a mind-bending 6,481 consecutive offensive snaps for the team.

He did that despite so many of those snaps coming as seasons were circling the drain, or his teams, six of which he captained, were eliminated from the playoff race.

You don’t do that performatively. You can only do that if you genuinely love the game, competition and your teammates, and Bitonio most certainly does. So, yes, it’d be cool if he got to walk away after all that with a ring or two. But that he doesn’t, and never really got close to that, only underscores the type of player and person he is.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs’ signing L’Jarius Sneed back is a move right out of the old Bill Belichick playbook—if you like a player, but have to let him go, then leave the light on for him.

Kansas City never really wanted to get rid of Sneed. DC Steve Spagnuolo legitimately loved him, and weaponized Sneed and his inside/outside versatility as a centerpiece of two title-winning defenses. But there was enough concern about Sneed’s degenerative knee that the doctors advised them not to extend him. So the Chiefs tagged him and then traded him to the Titans for a 2025 third-rounder that wound up becoming promising DE Ashton Gillotte.

Unfortunately for Sneed, the injury concerns manifested in Tennessee, and the Titans cut him in March. And sure enough, the Chiefs were there to scoop him up Monday, as they continue to reimagine their corner group with Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson gone to the Rams.

Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals’ minicamp is this week, and quarterback Jacoby Brissett is present.

Brissett, who new coach Mike LaFleur named the starter early in the offseason, has stayed away from the team’s offseason program to this point, unwilling to go forward with a $5.44 million left on the two-year deal he signed in March 2025. And while he’s right that the number is an incredibly low one for a starting quarterback in 2026, and I like Brissett, there was always a lot of risk that came with going on this sort of wildcat strike.

Specifically, there’s nothing forcing LaFleur and his staff to stick with Brissett as the starter, and they have an experienced quarterback, Gardner Minshew II, as his backup, with Minshew getting all the reps that Brissett missed through the spring—and a chance to show that he’s a better option, or at least good enough to legitimately compete for the job.

I’m told the plan for this week is for Brissett to do individual drill work, mostly because Minshew’s run the offense, and its plays, through OTAs, and his teammates have his cadence and, at this early juncture, will get more out of the three days if he’s in.

Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons quarterback competition is still on hold while Michael Penix Jr. continues to work through his rehab program, coming back from a November ACL tear.

Penix has been held out of team drills, and he won’t return to 11-on-11 action until training camp. So, in the interim, Tua Tagovailoa has been able to swallow up all the reps running an offense that’s similar but different from what both quarterbacks have run in the past. For his part, Penix has been solid in 7-on-7 work, which is impressive in itself, given the injury timeline. But, obviously, there’s only so much the coaches can take from that.

It should be an interesting summer in Atlanta.

New England Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown — Former Eagles receiver A.J. Brown was traded to the Patriots for multiple draft picks last week. | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

A.J. Brown trade

One thing I’d add to my A.J. Brown story from Monday’s takeaways—he’s not leaving Philly on as sour a note as some folks believe.

Yes, there was the football-driven tension with Jalen Hurts. But Brown remained, until the very end, a well-liked and respected guy in the Eagles’ locker room. He’d swung through the facility a couple of times in recent weeks to say hello to people, knowing the end was almost certainly coming. He even played some pop-a-shot in the weight room.

I’m sure, over time, he’ll be remembered fondly by the fan base, too.

Dallas Cowboys

It was very interesting to see Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer opening the pivotal left tackle spot on his line to competition—with former first-rounder Tyler Guyton working to fend off Nathan Thomas, who went 204 picks after he did in the 2024 draft. Dallas has developed Thomas, and he stepped in admirably to make four starts last year.

“Tyler understands the importance of this year. Why? Because it’s next year. We’re going to make Tyler earn it,” Schottenheimer said. “Tyler and Nate Thomas are competing for the starting left tackle [spot]. Why? Because we think that’s going to get the best out of Tyler Guyton. And the best out of Nate Thomas."

Pittsburgh Steelers

Little under-the-radar quarterback storyline: Mason Rudolph vs. Will Howard in Pittsburgh. Mike McCarthy spent a lot of time before Aaron Rodgers returned working with Howard to try to see what he has in the 2025 sixth-rounder. And the team selected Drew Allar in the third round. So, with it being a fair assumption that Rodgers and Allar are on the team, the likelihood is that Howard and Rudolph aren’t battling to back up the team’s veteran starter, but for a single roster spot.

Brendan Sorsby

This is a little more of a college football thing, but I was a little surprised by how unanimous the takes were on the Brendan Sorsby situation on Monday. Make no mistake, for major college and pro sports, this is an existential thing. There’s a reason the punishment on Pete Rose was as severe as it was. You can’t have players betting on their own teams, their teammates or themselves. It’s that simple.

Draft pick signings

As of the end of last week, 235 of 257 draft picks had signed, which is 91% of the class, and that was before Chiefs first-rounders Mansoor Delane and Peter Woods and Patriots first-rounder Caleb Lomu (among others) agreed to terms over the weekend. Only three first-rounders remain unsigned—the two quarterbacks (Vegas’s Fernando Mendoza and the Rams’ Ty Simpson) and the Browns’ second first-rounder (KC Concepcion).

Vacation time

About a week and a half to go until the NFL goes on its annual summer break.

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