Browns sign Joel Bitonio to 3-year extension

Share:

  • screen shot 2023 10 25 at 4.28.31 pm
  • lifecare rotator ad
  • slam dunk
  • Gionino's Pizza Now Open in Carrollton
  • bh ad 9.22.23
  • Daystar North Canton
  • Shook Auto Buy Vehicles
  • Daystar Malvern
  • screen shot 2023 11 17 at 11.21.58 am
  • Kishman's
  • Crowl Interiors in Malvern, Ohio
  • screenshot 2024 02 07 at 5.11.09 pm
  • Shook Auto in New Philadelphia

A day after signing Wyatt Teller to a multi-year extension, the Cleveland Browns added more years and more money to another one of their offensive linemen’s contracts.

The Browns announced on Wednesday their signing of left guard Joel Bitonio to a three-year extension, reported worth $48 million.

The extension would keep Bitonio in Cleveland through the 2025 season.

“I’ve been here for eight years now and seen a lot of ups and downs,” said Bitonio after Wednesday’s Browns practice in Berea. “To be part of that and for the team to have faith in me and allow me to be here for my entire career, it really means a lot. It’s special.”

“You see guys switch teams a lot and go from team to team, great players in this league. I saw Joe Thomas end his career here. It’s something when you get into [Year 8] and [Year 9], it gets in the back of your mind where it’d be really special to be in Cleveland your whole career and try to win a championship with these guys.”

Bitonio, 30, has been one of the longest mainstays on the Browns roster in the last decade. A second-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, Bitonio has made three consecutive Pro Bowls (2018-2020) and has earned three All-Pro second-team selections during that span.

The former University of Nevada lineman has made a total of 104 regular-season starts for the Browns (2nd most behind Thomas in the expansion Browns era), and he hasn’t missed a snap since the start of the 2017 season.

“After last season, we decided that one of our major football priorities would be to make Joel Bitonio a Brown for the rest of his career,” Browns general manager/executive vice president of football operations Andrew Berry said in the team’s announcement on Wednesday. “Joel is one of our most decorated players and is the ideal personification of our ‘Tough, Smart, Accountable’ mantra. We value Joel’s high-level performance, leadership, consistency, and durability.