Joel Bitonio reflects on another playoff-less season with Browns
BEREA — Joel Bitonio came into the NFL with the Browns in 2014. At that time, his future Hall of Fame teammate, Joe Thomas, was in his eighth season.
Thomas, one of the 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023, played four more seasons at left tackle, albeit the final one cut short due to injury. Over the span of that career, he never had an opportunity to play in a playoff game, and only was able to enjoy one winning season.
It’s something Bitonio, who just finished his ninth season with the Browns, has discussed with his former teammate.
“We talk all the time, and we’ll text back and forth or say stuff to each other about things, and I think that’s his biggest realization,” the All-Pro left guard said on Monday. “He did everything in his power, and it wasn’t enough and that frustrated him towards the end of his career, and obviously the end of his career was really rebuilding for us as a franchise.
“So that was definitely a frustrating point. I think we’re hopefully going to get to the point where at the end of my career we’re going to be competing for things, so hopefully we have some time. But he’s definitely been frustrated by that throughout his career.”
Bitonio, though, couldn’t hide his disappointment after he finished his eighth playoff-less season this week. The Browns’ 7-10 season was the eighth time the elder statesman of the team found himself cleaning out his locker a day after the regular season instead of getting ready to play in the postseason.
Since being a second-round pick of the Browns in 2014, Bitonio has, like Thomas before, established himself as one of the best in the league at his position. Yet, that hasn’t been enough to help ensure more on-field success for the team.
The realization of that fact was evident on Bitonio’s face in the locker room on the afternoon on which the Browns guaranteed they wouldn’t be playing in the playoffs. As he spoke after the Browns’ Christmas Eve loss to the New Orleans Saints, the normally upbeat and gregarious guard wore disappointment across his face and had a somberness in his voice.
“I hate using the word, but I’m getting older,” Bitonio said as he reflected on the season. “I’m getting older, and you don’t know how many years you have left playing. I’m not in year two or three where it’s like, hey, I’ve got a lot of time left. So it’s one of those things where I wanna win. Everybody wants to win, but you put in the work, you play this game, obviously we paid a lot of money. It’s a dream to play this game, to just even have the opportunity to play it.
“But at the end of the day, we all wanna win a Super Bowl, and you feel like a little bit of your career’s empty if you don’t have that opportunity. So you run out of time eventually.”
There were opportunities, especially early, to change the trajectory of the season. Those missed chances, though, helped lead to a four-game October losing streak that put the Browns in a 2-5 hole from which they could never recover.