The Opening Drive 6/10: Joel Bitonio Carved His Own Legacy in a Special Way

Remembering the best of the Browns guard who was such a pleasure to watch perform.

CLEVELAND, OHIO - NOVEMBER 30: Guard Joel Bitonio #75 of the Cleveland Browns celebrates during player introductions before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Huntington Bank Field on November 30, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. The 49ers defeated the Browns 26-8. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Joel Bitonio announced his retirement on Tuesday morning — the same day the Browns opened mandatory minicamp. The timing felt right. A player who put so much value in showing up and being there for his teammates, working hard, establishing relationships, and retiring on a day when the next version of the Browns are now trying to do the same thing. For twelve years, Bitonio was the quiet and steady center of gravity for this franchise. Not its most famous player, and not its highest-paid, but probably its most consistent. Almost certainly its most professional. And by the time it was all over, a legitimate argument for its greatest modern offensive lineman outside of Joe Thomas.

The resume is straightforward: 178 games played, 178 games started, seven Pro Bowl selections, five All-Pro nods including first-team honors in 2021 and 2022. His seven Pro Bowls rank fourth in team history, trailing only Hall of Famers Joe Thomas, Jim Brown, and Lou Groza. His Pro Bowl and All-Pro totals surpassed even Gene Hickerson, the Browns’ other great guard and a Hall of Famer in his own right. The numbers are excellent. But the numbers don’t fully explain what made Bitonio special.

What made him special was availability. After suffering season-ending injuries in his second and third years in the league, Bitonio came back and played every single offensive snap from 2017 through 2023 — 6,481 consecutive plays. Thomas set the standard and Bitonio did his best to pay homage. He had a knack for relentless preparation, a disciplined approach to his body, and a refusal to take shortcuts. In a league where offensive linemen quietly vanish into the injury report every other week, Bitonio showed up. Week after week, year after year, in every kind of game under every kind of circumstances this franchise could produce — and this franchise produced plenty of difficult circumstances.

He played through the 0-16 season. He played through the constant quarterback carousel. He played in years when the Browns were unwatchable and in years when they overcame the odds. When the team finally broke through with a playoff win in January 2021, Bitonio wasn’t able to be on the field due to Covid-19, but his impact from the special year was felt. He wrote in his retirement letter that the playoff win over Pittsburgh — watching Baker Mayfield keep the football and run for the clinching first down — was the moment that made all the difficult years feel like they had some worth.

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CLEVELAND, OHIO - DECEMBER 28: Joel Bitonio #75 of the Cleveland Browns celebrates after their win against the New York Jets at Cleveland Browns Stadium on December 28, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

There’s also a film case for Bitonio that doesn’t get made often enough. He was not a one-trick guard. His pass protection was elite — as recently as 2024, he ranked tied for eighth among all qualifying guards in ESPN’s pass block win rate at 94.3 percent. But he was also an effective run blocker in multiple scheme types, which is under-appreciated for a player who cycled through as many offensive coordinators and system philosophies as he did. Bitonio didn’t need a particular scheme to succeed. He adjusted. He was smart enough to be effective in gap schemes and zone schemes alike, and that versatility is part of what kept him at the top of the position for so long.

Early in his career you could see the brute strength in the run game that opened up those tight zone lanes for Browns running backs.