Guard Joel Bitonio says Browns have to ‘establish our standard' as a run-focused offense

New York Times

2 days ago

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — Rock-solid Cleveland Browns guard Joel Bitonio considered retirement after a difficult 2024 season, but he informed the team in March that he planned to return.
Now that it's June, Bitonio sees the 2025 Browns returning to a familiar offensive blueprint that focuses on the run game and relies on an experienced, well-paid offensive line to help stabilize things and contribute to a much-improved product.
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While the primary offseason headlines revolve around the four-man quarterback competition, Bitonio told reporters Monday that much of the behind-the-scenes offseason work points to the Browns returning to coach Kevin Stefanski's offensive roots.
The Browns are going to run the ball. And if it works, they'll keep running it.
'For an O-line, if you drop back to throw 40, 50, 60 times a game, (that's difficult),' Bitonio said. 'That's still going to happen. You still have to pass the ball to win in this league. But if you can have a brand (that says), 'We're going to take care of the football,' and I think the way we won in the past is our defense was fresh, that can work. The games that (the defense) played great, they played 50 or 60 snaps, not 70 or 80 snaps a game. And so if we can control the ball and handle those things, I think it's a big step.
'From the installs and from what I've seen, it's going back to what Coach Stefanski has been known for.'
'I'm not ready to be done, I want to play more and I want to play in Cleveland' pic.twitter.com/0zvkapRgae
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) June 2, 2025
Bitonio twice referenced a feeling of 2020 and 2021, when Stefanski arrived and the Browns went 11-5 in his first season as head coach. In 2021 and 2022, running back Nick Chubb posted 20 total rushing touchdowns while compiling two of his three best rushing seasons. Chubb suffered a major knee injury early in 2023 and is currently a free agent who's not in the Browns' plans, but they drafted two running backs and return five offensive linemen who have started games over multiple seasons.
With quarterback Deshaun Watson injured and not in the team's plans, and Stefanski returning as the play caller as part of a staff that has a new offensive coordinator in Tommy Rees and a new offensive line coach in Mike Bloomgren, the Browns are moving past a 3-14 season that Bitonio said 'snowballed' and returning to at least a blueprint of what they know has worked.
'Overall I think we just had the wrong mentality (last season), and I think Coach Stefanski has already stressed the toughness that we need to bring back, how practice is going to be,' Bitonio said. 'I think rookie minicamp and the OTAs have already kind of picked up that tempo. We're not resting on any laurels of playoffs (like the 2024 Browns were) or anything like that. It's a new team, and we have to establish our standard and what we want the Browns to be.'
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Jerome Ford is the lead running back for now, though rookies Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson should be in the mix. The interior of the offensive line — Bitonio and Wyatt Teller at guard with Ethan Pocic at center — has been a strength and should be again this season. But Bitonio, Teller and Pocic are all currently signed only through 2025. With Bitonio's playing plans beyond this season uncertain, there's an urgency involved with establishing — or, as Bitonio says, re-establishing — the kind of run game the Browns had early in Stefanski's tenure.
'The offense can (win with) ball control: run the ball, play-action passes, do all the things that you want to,' Bitonio said. 'That's the picture you paint and you see where you're at, and that's what we're hoping for. But hope is an easy word. We're trying to work for it and we're trying to put the group out there and try and win some games this year.'
The 2024 Browns were in the bottom-third of the league at just 4.1 yards per rush and tied for 30th with just eight rushing touchdowns all season. Per TruMedia, the Browns were 21st in rush EPA and 28th in rush success rate. Another year of a quarterback carousel contributed to that, but Chubb was never fully healthy after returning in October, and things never clicked with Watson and offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, who was fired the day after the season concluded.
'For me, this feels like a 2020, 2021 install of the outside zone with power schemes mixed in, which I think is a strength of what our O-line does,' Bitonio said. 'Obviously, we're a little bit older, but Jack (Conklin) comes from outside zone (roots). Wyatt is one of the better pullers, power blockers in the league. (Pocic) can kind of do it all, but I think it fits us so much better.'
Bitonio, 33, was open last winter about contemplating retirement, but he's said his body feels good ahead of his 12th NFL season. Bitonio is a seven-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro. With 161 career starts, Bitonio is just seven short of passing Hall of Famer Joe Thomas for the most by any player in the Browns' post-1999 era.
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With the endorsement of his family and acknowledgement that he spoke to Thomas about his football future, Bitonio said he's preparing for another season with an open mind and the belief that he can still play at a high level.
Bitonio participates in the Browns' offseason program, but he's not on the field for their 10 organized team activity practices, which began last week. That's simply load management, a philosophy he's adopted since the return to a full offseason program for most players in 2022.
'I got to a point in my career personally where it was the extra reps versus how my body feels,' Bitonio said. 'And so I've kind of worked through that over the last few years. And this year I've been in meetings, I've been in the weight room with the guys, I've been working out, I've been in Berea all offseason. So I've seen that, I've been around the guys, and it's really just a process (in OTAs) of getting guys reps and building your depth and finding guys. Because truly, I don't think anybody makes the team or doesn't make the team in OTAs. You get a foundation of what you want your team to be.
'We've got to be tough up front. We've got to turn 2- and 3-yard runs into 4- and 5-yard runs. Our defense has to be tough. It's all toughness. It starts at training camp and just having that ability to go to battle, and when things do not go your way — it's a long season, you're going to lose some games — how do you bounce back? How do you not let one loss turn into two? And so, yeah, we've got to be tough up front for sure.'