LG Joel Bitonio (11.24.23)
What does it mean for you to be nominated by the Browns for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award?
“It’s a great honor. I just try and play the game the right way and, you know just try and play the game the right way and, you know, respect the guys we’re going against. We know it’s a tough battle, but you play hard and you can still take care of those guys and be respectful and enjoy the game.”
How’d you find out?
“Dan Murphy let me know, so that’s always good. He’s been my connection on quite a few of these, so Dan lets me know, and that was kind of how I found out.”
Is it a little strange seeing Joe Flacco in a Browns uniform?
“You know, I had a decent amount of games against him when he was on the (Baltimore) Ravens. Obviously, last year when he was on the (New York) Jets. Seeing him at practice is definitely different, and it’s one of those things where it might take a few practices.”
After the game, you talked about the Steelers going bigger personnel. It kind of slowed down the run game last week. So do you expect to see more of that? And if so, how do you counter?
“You know, actually the Broncos kind of similar scheme to the Ravens and Steelers. Their base defense – three down, but turns into five guys on the line, basically. And so they have the ability to run that defense as well. And I’m sure we’re going to get different looks at it. We’re just trying to prepare and make sure we have the right plays in and the right game plan in case we do need to get bigger and make those things happen. But I think we’ll see some growth with the offense. Just with Dorian (Thompson-Robinson) getting another chance, another week and having more time to throw in some new plays.”
How do you feel about going on another long road trip and perhaps maybe doing some more team bonding as you guys head into that stretch?
“I think if you asked me when I was like 22, when I first got in league, I was like, that’s great. Now I got kids at home and stuff, so it’s a little bit tough to leave the kids and the wife at home for a week. But we’re going to make the most of it. We know we got to beat Denver and then from there we have a week in LA. And it’s actually close to home, back home for me and my mom and brother and sister can come up and hang out a little bit. But as a team, I think treat it like a normalish week, but we’ll obviously have time to go to dinner and be around each other and just continue to learn and Coach kind of went over last week. We have a bunch of guys that weren’t there when went to the Greenbriar, so we’re kind of bringing those guys along too. The NFL is unfortunately a revolving door of guys getting hurt and bringing guys in and stuff like that. So we have a new team almost every week until you bring someone else new in, but it’ll be good. It’ll be good to be around the guys and hopefully we can have a good time out there.”
What do you think about how you guys have been able to withstand everything that you have since you’ve been here? What do you think has been the difference?
“I think it’s a testament. It starts with Andrew Berry and Coach (Kevin) Stefanski. They built a strong team with depth guys that come in and step in and make plays and then it speaks to guys resilience and understanding. We don’t have everybody out there, but we have the right guys. We have the right guys out there and we understand. We wish we had our full strength of guys. It’d be great to go in with Deshaun (Watson) and Nick (Chubb) and Jack (Conklin) and Jed (Wills) on offense, but we don’t have that and we have other guys that are stepping up and making plays for us and we try not to look too far ahead. We just try and go 1-0 this week, every week. And when we do that, I think we’re focused and we’re determined and we know we have enough out there to win and compete.”
How’s Geron (Christian) gotten more comfortable?
“Yeah, that first start was, I still think, pretty dang impressive. You come off the street, you come in, you start a game against one of the better defenses in the league. I think there were one or two at the time with Cleveland. And you come in, you play that game and you get a big one and you have to go against Pittsburgh and they’re edge rushers. So he’s had a fast couple of weeks, but he got drafted in Washington with (Bill) Callahan. So he had a little bit of experience with working with Coach Callahan and stuff, but he’s done a great job. He’s got a bunch of reps and it’s really been impressive. I’ve been impressed with his work ethic and his know, ability to learn the offense and try and get an understanding, but I think he’s getting more and more comfortable and hopefully we keep playing together as long as Jed’s still working back and we can keep improving.”
Dawand (Jones) coming back out, that has to be a huge shot in the arm also.
“Yeah. Dawand’s working hard to be 100% and make those plays, but he’s a good player. I think you see his pass protection is pretty impressive with his size and stuff and just having him next to wide on the right side will be a big boost for us.”
The Broncos have won their last four games so, defensively, when you guys studied that what has stood out for the stretch?
“The number one thing is turnovers. They’ve forced I think it’s like twelve turnovers in that stretch, so they’re using the turnover margin. And I think that’s something Coach stresses all the time is if you win the turnover margin, your record goes way better, but they’re playing good. You look at some of the advanced EPA stats and stuff, they’re still technically ranked last. But if you look at the last five games, they’re like, top five or top ten in the league. So they’ve done a lot of good things. They have a solid front and their corners and their DBs can really cover well, too.”
You guys do that strip sack drill during camp where you’re jumping on the loose, balls on the pad, stuff like that. Earlier this year, Wyatt (Teller) jumped on one and saved the game. Just how cognizant going against being too aggressive and ripping the ball out to you as an offensive lineman have to be as far as making sure that you’re seeing that football go where it needs to go.
“Right. We’re hopefully focused on protecting so our guys aren’t the one forcing fumbles and making those plays. But if it does ever know, like you said, we learned to slide into it, cradle it. Wyatt did a great example of taking care of the ball. Hopefully you’re never in that position. You know what I mean? I think one time a few years ago, I tried to pick it up against the Jets when it wasn’t legal to advance the ball, you know what I mean? So I’ve learned my lesson. You probably won’t see me doing that anymore. But no, we want to protect the ball, and I think that’s always one of our goals on offense, is not turn the ball.”
Joel, just how do you think the offense, DTR by himself, and then the offense can grow as he gets more experience, and start to reform?
“Yeah, I think last week we tried to get the ball out of his hands. We knew he had a great rush, and he was hitting his first or second read most of the times, and I think there are ways you can advance that. Take a few more shots downfield, move the pocket a little bit for him and stuff. And like I said, Pittsburgh’s defense is so edge-based, and they try and contain everything inside that it’s really a tough defense to do that against. But I think we can grow as a group. And he has a lot of experience playing football. If you look at his college numbers and stuff like that. I think anytime you get in there and you get comfortable, he hasn’t had that many opportunities to throw the ball to (Amari) Coop and Elijah (Moore) and those guys when you’re working with a second or third team. So just growing like that, and he’s learning, but he’s very comfortable in the huddle. Like, he has confidence about himself, so all those things are positive. I think the more experience he gets, the more he can improve a little bit.”
Like this is his second full week of practice with the ones, do you just see him kind of growing?
“Yeah. No, he’s correcting things and making sure we’re in the right spot. If we’re not, sometimes you have a bad shift on a Wednesday or Thursday because we’re just putting things in or wrong formation, and he’s getting us back in the huddle and making those corrections. So he’s really focused. And I think that’s the main thing I call last because this is how focused he was in the meeting and in the walkthroughs and things like that.”
Just a real quick culture question for you, I asked Myles (Garrett) this and he had an interesting response. A lot of times when you hear about teams, talk about so much. You guys have talked a lot about how much you see genuine connection, how much of that come naturally, how much have you guys had to work at that?
“I think when you can keep a general manager, a head coach, coaching staff together, get to keep more of the core players, you know what I mean? And so since Andrew Berry’s been here, you get the Myles, you get the Wyatt’s, you get guys that have been along for four years now that can grow together and build together. When you have those friendships, you bring other people into it. Then you go to the Greenbrier and you kind of have to hang out with each other. It grows into a culture, and then the offense talks about a lot where you play for the guy next to you got a left tackle next to you got a center next to you. You can’t let those guys down. And so it kind of builds in a brotherhood. But then when you start winning these close games and you start seeing the defense get a pick-six to help us improve and win a game, build it together, and you realize, like, hey, we got to do this together, it’s never going to come easy. But if offense steps up once, the defense steps up, special teams step up once, it’s special and you can feel the group growing tighter and tighter together.”
With Joe here, does it almost give a little bit of sort of a Jacoby (Brissett) vibe, so much mentorship. So much wisdom and experience. Do you guys have some of that?
“Yeah, this is his first real week here, so we’re still getting to know him. But he definitely has experience, and he definitely has that mentorship. And from what I’ve seen in the meeting room and stuff, he’s a guy that they can bounce questions off of and stuff, and he’s more than willing to talk. He makes me feel a little bit younger around here, so that’s a positive. I think he’s 38 now, five kids. That’s a guy that’s experienced a lot. So it’s definitely been good for our room, and I know those guys are excited. We’re excited to have him.”
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