Browns' Joel Bitonio Dreaming Big, But Relishing Looming Playoff Run

The Browns have Super Bowl aspirations as they prepare to open their postseason against the Texans on Saturday, but Joel Bitonio is also trying to enjoy the moment knowing nothing is guaranteed

Seven years. That's how long it took for Browns, two-time All-Pro guard Joel Bitonio to feel the glory of playing postseason football.

In the years after being drafted in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, Bitonio experienced some of the lowest moments in franchise history. In 2015 the team won just a single game. It followed that miserable season up with an 0-16 campaign – the ultimate proof of dilapidation, reserved for truly the worst of the worst teams in NFL history.

Then, a year after that Bitonio watched his partner in crime, franchise legend Joe Thomas retire in 2017, having never once made the playoffs in an 11-year career with the team. Three years later, that playoff moment finally did arrive for Bitonio, the final chapter of a strange 2020 season, altered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Wouldn't you know, Bitonio would miss the team's first round matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers after coming down with the virus himself.

Fortunately, the Browns won and he'd go on to play one week later in a Divisional Round loss to the Chiefs. Admittedly though, he wishes he had been out there for what should have been his first ever playoff game.

"2020 was awesome," Bitonio said. "It was great to watch the guys win, but obviously you want to be a part of it, too, and you want to be out there in these wins. And now we’re going to have a full stadium where it was a little bit less back in 2020.”

The memory of that season is perhaps a reminder that playing football this time of year can is fleeting. So as the Browns gear up for another postseason run, which opens up in Houston on Saturday afternoon, Bitonio is relishing each and every moment.

“Yeah, I definitely don’t take it for granted because it’s been long enough where you don’t have a chance every year," he explained. "You can think you’re built for the future and you have an injury or something and that kind of derails your season. So I’m so happy that we’re back and I’m not taking it for granted to have another opportunity."

Three years older and now on the other side of 30, that's some important perspective to have. The Browns went 18 years without between playoff appearances before that 2020 run. There's hope that this current regime, led by executive vice president of football operations Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski, have changed things at 76 Lou Groza Blvd in Berea, but to Bitonio's point, nothing in this league is guaranteed.

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That doesn't mean Bitonio doesn't have the ultimate goal on his mind. Ironically, the mindset he has about enjoying this playoff experience, living in the moment if you will, is the exact same mentality the Browns will have to take to get there.

“Yeah, I think [winning the Super Bowl is] everybody’s goal that plays this game," he said. "It’d be spectacular. But truthfully, we talked about it and now it’s so far out there. We got to beat Houston. We got to focus on that. We got to try and go 1-0 this week and see what happens over there. But that’s the ultimate goal for, I think, all the competitors that play in the NFL.”

Taking it one week at a time is nothing new for this Browns team, that has battled an excessive number of injuries to have an opportunity to hoist a Lombardi Trophy in the coming weeks. If they're able to go 1-0 four more times they'll do just that. And Bitonio will have something to cherish forever.