Joel Bitonio retires, ending 12 seasons with the Browns

Joel Bitonio’s retirement closed one of the rare long, unbroken chapters in recent Browns history. The 35th overall pick in the 2014 draft ended his career on June 9, with his wife, Courtney, and their three children beside him in Berea as Cleveland began mandatory minicamp and moved into a season without one of its most dependable players.

Bitonio spent all 12 of his NFL seasons in Cleveland, a level of continuity that is increasingly unusual for an offensive lineman in a league built on churn. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 320 pounds, he played in 178 games and made 178 starts, turning himself into the kind of guard whose value showed up in what did not happen, missed protections, collapsed pockets and rushed game plans. The Browns said he logged 6,481 consecutive offensive snaps from 2017 through 2023 and stacked up 102 consecutive starts, a run that underscored just how hard it was to take him off the field.

His résumé carried the kind of honors that usually follow that sort of durability. Pro Football Reference lists seven Pro Bowl selections and two first-team All-Pro nods, while March 2025 coverage described him as returning for a 12th NFL season after flirting with retirement. Bitonio wore No. 75 throughout his Browns career, and by the end he had become one of the franchise’s most recognizable constants, even if offensive guards rarely get the public attention given to quarterbacks or pass rushers.

The emotional center of Bitonio’s retirement was Cleveland’s playoff breakthrough, not a stat line. In his farewell essay, he pointed to Baker Mayfield’s run that clinched a playoff berth against Pittsburgh as the moment that made him want to finish his career in Cleveland, and he said the Browns’ early-2021 playoff run deepened that bond. That sense of attachment helps explain why his departure landed as more than a roster move. It removed one of the few veteran voices that had survived multiple versions of the Browns.

For Cleveland, Bitonio’s exit is another test of organizational stability. The Browns are now trying to build around a new phase of the roster without a player who represented durability, leadership and institutional memory at once. In a locker room that has changed often, Bitonio had become the rare fixed point, and the Browns will feel the absence well beyond the offensive line.