Joel Bitonio feels Kevin Stefanski is coach Browns 'can build around'

BEREA — It’s down to two games left in the Browns’ season. That means two games left in guard Joel Bitonio’s 12th season in the NFL.

Which means questions about the future. Obviously, those start with Bitonio’s future, as he prepares for what could potentially be his final game against the Browns’ archrivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I’m not sure,” Bitonio said Dec. 24. “Kind of like last year, this year I’m just taking it one game at a time, seeing where we’re at. It is last year on my contract here in Cleveland. But I’m not really thinking about the future there. I want to finish out this season and take some time, talk to the family before I make any decisions.”

It could be both the final home game and final game against the Steelers for others with the Browns as well. Maybe the most notable who could be is head coach Kevin Stefanski.

Stefanski’s fate as the head coach is one of the biggest questions looming when the Browns’ season ends with the finale at the Cincinnati Bengals. Cleveland is currently 3-12 after having gone 3-14 the previous season.

Stefanski has said he’s not focused on those potential decisions. Bitonio, though, would give his full support behind his head coach.

“To me, I think he’s a good coach in the NFL,” Bitonio said. “I think he’s a good football coach. We have not won. And he will tell you firsthand winning matters and listening and we haven’t done that. But as a coach goes, I have the highest respect for him, what he’s done here. And I know it is what you’ve done now, but we’ve been to two playoffs games. We’ve had winning records. We’ve been competitive.”

Stefanski has said he’s not focused on those potential decisions. Bitonio, though, would give his full support behind his head coach.

Bitonio points to the way the Browns took the playoff-bound Buffalo Bills to the wire as another piece of evidence for Stefanski to return. For a team that has been relying on a large number of rookies — including three who were selected as Pro Bowl alternates in linebacker Carson Schwesinger, now-injured running back Quinshon Judkins and tight end Harold Fannin Jr. — the 23-20 loss was evidence of a team that still believes in its coach.

“Is it where we’re at right now, we don’t want to be there,” Bitonio said. “But I think if we get the right pieces and we keep improving, I think that’s a guy you can build around. Two-time coach of the year, he has respect of his peers. He’s even-keeled. I think you saw this last week. The team is motivated to play. We’re trying to win games. I think he has the respect of the locker room. I think it’s just a guy you keep around and you build around. And that would be my focus if I was in charge of that.”

Bitonio points to one overarching reason why the Browns have struggled, the quarterback position. The 2022 Deshaun Watson trade has been the central character in the entire organization’s struggles, which owner Jimmy Haslam called the “big swing and a miss.”

Watson will spend the entire season on the reserve/physically unable to perform list after the Browns elected to not activate him Dec. 23 as he recovers from the 2024 Achilles tear. He’s played just 19 games since 2022 due to everything from a 2022 personal conduct policy suspension, multiple 2023 shoulder injuries and then the Week 7 Achilles tear in 2024.

That’s led to a total of 10 different quarterbacks — Watson, Jacoby Brissett, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, PJ Walker, Joe Flacco, Jeff Driskel, Jameis Winston, Bailey Zappe, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders — to start in that span. The fewest starters in one season was two in 2022 (Watson and Brissett), while they used five starters in 2023, four in 2024 and have had three (Flacco, Gabriel and Sanders) this season.

“I mean, you saw him in 2023, right,” We had five different quarterbacks start games or six or however many it was. And then the last two years, it’s been a rotation of quarterbacks. And we’re working. We have a couple young rookie quarterbacks that are playing and showing promise. But until that quarterback position is solved in the NFL, it is hard to win games. It is the most important position in sports. And you’re trying to build a defense that has shown that they can be elite and you want to build around these great quarterbacks.”

The revolving door of quarterbacks is only matched, on a much smaller scale, by the revolving door of head coaches Bitonio has played for, which currently stands at four full-time head coaches and one interim coach. He was originally drafted in the first of Mike Pettine’s two seasons in 2014, then did two-and-a-half years under Hue Jackson, with eight games of Gregg Williams to close out 2018, and one with Freddie Kitchens before Stefanski was hired in 2020.

Stefanski has been in the job more than twice as long as any of Bitonio’s other head coaches. In fact, he’s the longest-tenured Browns coach since Sam Rutigliano, and his 43 wins are the most of any head coach in the expansion era, and behind only Paul Brown (158 wins), Blanton Collier (76), Rutigliano (47) and Marty Schottenheimer (44).

“I mean, I think there’s also a history,” Bitonio said. “Some of the other coaches that I’ve played for did, they had three wins. They didn’t have 11 wins. They didn’t have playoff wins. They didn’t have playoff appearances. They didn’t have a six-year sample size. We are not where we want to be. We expect to be higher.

“But if you want to go look back at the preseason rankings, I think everybody had us at 31 or 32, and that’s not what we strive for or what we want. When you talk about expectations and reality and things of that nature, I have the utmost respect for him. I just think you keep allowing him to coach the Browns, I think we’ll be in a good place in the future.”