LG Joel Bitonio (11.29.23)
What’s cooler, being back home or not being the oldest guy on offense anymore?
“Both, you know. You know, only probably, I mean, it’s LA. So no traffic I’m like 30 minutes away, but there’s never no traffic, so it’s probably like, an hour and a half to get home. But, no, it’s good to be back in California, you know, just being around the team and it’s snowing, obviously in Cleveland right now, so getting some good weather and just being around the team, bonding with the guys a little bit. Having Joe (Flacco) out there, he obviously brings a veteran presence, you know, the week and a half he’s been here. Good guy, just loves football. You hear some of the stories he’s been a part of. Obviously, we played against him a bunch when he was in Baltimore and last year with the Jets, but it’s good to have a veteran presence.”
Did you know him at all?
“No. I haven’t known him besides just competing against him, but never really talked to him or met him, but so far so good.”
How much did it change the blocking? He’s a little different mobility wise than Dorian (Thompson-Robinson) or Deshaun (Watson).
“I mean, we haven’t played with him yet, so we’ll kind of see how it goes. I’m sure we’ll have a few more wrinkles in there, just different styles. I’m guessing, you know less read options and stuff like that, but no, he’s seen it all. He’s been in a lot of offenses, so there’s a good experience background for him.”
You’ve obviously been around and seen so many different quarterbacks. Have you seen guys get thrown into the fire so quickly like this in the event that he does and be able to function well and have timing with their receivers?
“Yeah, I think he’s obviously the most experienced guy we’ve had. We’ve had guys come in off the street and have to be a backup or something like that, but he’s been in the office before. He had a week. We’ve done a walk through with him now and he seems like he has to playcalling down and stuff of that nature, so we’re feeling good about it. I think he has a lot of experience and if he has to go out there and play, I think he’ll be ready to.”
You have a lot of experience just dealing with a lot of different quarterbacks over your time. How much has that helped you this season, especially with kind of the revolving doors that’s existed there?
“Yeah, I think for the O line and just for the guys, whoever’s back there, we have to do our jobs, and it’s a play-by-play basis, so we’re really focused on that. It matters who’s back there, but for all intensive purposes, it’s like we have to do our job and that’s really the most important thing. So, we’re trying to focus on the next play and just understanding like, hey, we got to give him the most time possible to execute and hopefully help him out enough to run an offense.”
Were you and Aaron Donald in the same draft class?
“Yes.”
Played against him a couple of times, right?
“Yeah, we were in the Senior Bowl together. Actually, I was playing tackle, so I didn’t really get to block him at that time, but I played him twice in the regular season, once in the preseason. I mean, great player. Probably, in my opinion, still the best defensive tackle in the game. Just his explosiveness, his pass rush arsenal. Very good player. He’s someone we have to have a plan for this week.”
How did the Jerry West speech go? What was your takeaway, and how cool was that?
“Yeah, very cool. It was great. We got the news this morning that he was going to talk to us, and his career, his illustrious career as a player and coach and executive in the NBA is second to none. But truly, he was talking a lot about integrity of a person, you know, playing for the guys around you. He was very impressed with, he’s actually a Browns fan. That’s what he told us. But he was very impressed with football players. He’s like, you guys are tough. You guys play through injuries. You guys do a lot of that stuff. So, he had a lot of respect for that. But the overall picture was just being a good teammate, playing for your guys, executing, having a bigger purpose out there. But it was very cool. I mean, he’s getting up there in age, but he’s still sharp and still really cool to hear a legend talk to us.”
Obviously, you’re playing basketball growing up around here. Does that kind of add to it for you for this to kind of happen?
“Yeah, it was fun. He was part of drafting Kobe (Bryant), which was one of my guys growing up. I was a huge Kobe guy, so seeing that story, and he was an architect of a lot of the Lakers championships when I was rooting for the Lakers. So just having that experience, anytime you, that’s cool thing about the NFL, you have so many chances to hear very cool people talk, and that was one of them. So, it was very cool.”
Ever had a sports opinion you wanted to share via playing banner?
“No, I haven’t.”
When you talk about guys playing hurt right now, you guys have Myles Garrett out there who told us after the game that he’s absolutely determined to go out there and play no matter what’s going on in his shoulder, but it’s obvious it’s very painful. So what do you think of him getting ready to do that? I know you played through plenty.
“Yeah, it’s impressive. You appreciate guys who can go out there and play, and sometimes you can’t. You know what I mean? You’re hurting enough where you don’t have the ability to go out there. But if he has that ability and that pain tolerance to go out there and play, we appreciate it, and we understand he’s a huge piece for our defense and our team. So having him out there is very helpful, and he’s one of our captains, one of our leaders. So, to see him kind of try and fight through some of those injuries, it’s good for us.”
Maybe outside of the COVID year. Have you gone through a year where it’s just been so many different people in and out of the lineup for injury?
“It’s been a lot. You never know what to expect in NFL. It’s such a roller coaster sometimes. But like you said, besides the COVID year, this has been one of the more up and down injury years we’ve had. But Coach (Kevin Stefanski) has done a good job of keeping our mind focused on the next game. It matters, but it doesn’t really matter who’s out there. You got to execute and find a way to win these games.”
What challenge does the Rams defensive line present to you guys?
“Yeah, I mean, it starts with Aaron Donald, 99. I think he’s, like I said, one of the best players in the league. And then they have a lot of young guys, honestly, but they’re playing hard and they don’t get as much attention, so they’re making plays for them as well. They do a lot of five down stuff. So they try and get Aaron one on one as much as possible, which is obviously a tough matchup for anybody, but they’re doing great. They’re playing within themselves, and I think they’re playing pretty complementary with their offense right now. They’ve won a couple in a row, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us. We got to find ways to execute against them.”
I know you guys are obviously still putting in a full week work down here, but because of the early bye starting so early, does being out here kind of help break up the grind a little bit?
“I think so. That early bye is never great, and it’s a little bit longer season, week 13 now, so getting out here is something different, make something different. We’ll still be with pretty much the same schedule, but truly, it’s definitely helped us, I think, break up the week-to-week schedule.”
If it’s too warm for the beard, are you going to have to shave?
“No, I’ll be all right. It’s perfect weather. It’s like big in the 60s, right? Like it’s not bad.”
Good to be back on the West Coast.
“Yeah, that’s nice. I forgot how early Monday night football games start. Oh, yeah like 5 o’clock. Let’s go.”
Have you been waking up at 03:00 a.m. Like the rest of us?
“I’ve caught up a little bit. You get in late. So, I slept in a little bit. Then it’s been a few days. So, we’re getting close to being on West Coast time.
Is it like the Greenbrier?
“A little bit different. A little bit different.”
Now that you’re here and settled in, can you see how this can be beneficial for you guys to kind of pull together before this home stretch?
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve had a lot of time. We got to go out to dinner. We went out with O line and quarterbacks on Monday. Met up with some of the other position groups that were out. So we’ve been together a lot. And when you have nothing else to do, it’s like you want to hang out, you want to be with the guys, and anytime you can build that bond and you want to play for the guy next to you and they want to play for you, it helps out.”
Are you in charge of bed checks this week?
“No, that’s Frainer (John Frain) for us. But no guys have been good. We’re locked in now. We know it’s a business trip, so we had some fun Monday, but we’re ready to roll.”
And you feel sorry for your wife at home with the kids in 26 degrees and snow?
“Yeah, we FaceTime quite a bit, and they keep showing me some. My daughter’s excited about the snow. I don’t know about my wife, so it’s tough, but now she’s a rock. She’s killing it out there. Obviously, I wish she was out here, but yeah, it’s a little bit different weather.”
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