Browns Joel Bitonio Believes Right Pieces in Place, Though he is Aging and Wants to win Badly
Three things are a given; death, taxes, and Joel Bitonio giving some of the best guard play in the NFL. The Pro Bowl player did that again this year, despite the Cleveland Browns finishing with a 7-10 record. For Bitonio, it is another losing season, he's endured a lot of those in the nine seasons with the Browns.
"It was frustrating. I thought that was going to take us up a level," Bitonio said of making the playoffs in 2020. "I do have faith we have the right core of players, coach to take us to that level."
Bitonio is another one that believes in head coach Kevin Stefanski and what the team is building. 2022 was disappointing, but it was not far off what many expected with the given circumstances.
"I'm getting older, I want to win," Bitoni said. "At the end of the day, we all want to win a Super Bowl. You run out of time, eventually."
This sounds similar to how Joe Thomas did following many of the losses he took. Thomas admitted that losing took a piece out of him eventually.
Going forward, the Browns hope to get the defense right. Next year the offense will be expected to perform with Deshaun Watson at the helm for a full season.
"I think we saw glimpses of what we could be, the goal is to maximize our offense for everybody in it. I think it's a big advantage for us."
Bitonio has one thing in mind to close out his career, which he plans to do with Cleveland. The left guard will be a free agent in the 2026 offseason at 36 years old.
"To finish out my career with some winning records would be great."
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Brandon Little is a writer for Sports Illustrated’s Browns Digest website and you can follow him on Twitter @BrandonLittleFB here. You can follow Browns Digest on Twitter here.
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