BEREA, Ohio — Browns left guard Joel Bitonio hasn’t committed to whether he’ll return for a 13th season in 2026. He knows one person who he’d like to see return next season: Kevin Stefanski.
“I think he’s a good football coach,” Bitonio said on Wednesday. “We have not won. And he will tell you firsthand winning matters and we haven’t done that. But as a coach goes, I have the highest respect for him, what he’s done here.”
Bitonio has seen some coaches during his time here. A second round pick in 2014, he started with Mike Pettine as his head coach for two seasons. Then came two-and-a-half years of Hue Jackson, followed by Gregg Williams to finish the 2018 season. One season of Freddie Kitchens preceded Stefanski, who took over in 2020.
The Browns made the playoffs under Stefanski in 2020 and 2023, but a 3-14 record last season and a 3-12 record this season has created plenty of angst in the fan base.
Bitonio thinks Stefanski’s history with the Browns should be enough to earn Stefanski more grace than some of the previous coaches he’s played for.
“Some of the other coaches that I’ve played for, they had three wins,” he said. “They didn’t have 11 wins. They didn’t have playoff wins. They didn’t have playoff appearances. They didn’t have a six-year sample size.”
Stefanski has compiled a 43-56 record in his six seasons as Browns head coach, but the Browns made the playoffs his first season and won their only playoff game since the team returned in 1999. Stefanski was stuck watching that game in his basement after contracting COVID-19, leaving former special teams coordinator Mike Priefer in charge on game day. (Bitonio also missed that win over Pittsburgh due to COVID protocols.)
The Browns also made the playoffs in 2023, even as they cycled through five starting quarterbacks, including bringing Joe Flacco off the couch to start in the final month of the season. They lost in the wild card round to Houston.
Stefanski won Coach of the Year in both of those seasons.
“I know it is what you’ve done now, but we’ve been to (three) playoff games, we’ve had winning records. We’ve been competitive,” Bitonio said. “Is it where we’re at right now? We don’t want to be there. But I think if we get the right pieces and we keep improving, I think that’s a guy you can build around.”
The respect Bitonio and Stefanski have is mutual. Stefanski had high praise for his starting left guard on Tuesday after he was left off the AFC’s Pro Bowl roster. Bitonio fell victim to the Pro Bowl no longer naming alternates for offensive or defensive lines.
“Joel’s a Pro Bowler, Joel’s a Hall of Famer,” Stefanski said. “He’s playing at an extremely high level this season as well, does not look like he’s fallen off at all, playing at a high level. I know the rules are a little bit different now with the Pro Bowl as it relates to the roster for offensive line and defensive line, which is a little interesting, I guess you would say, but he’s a Pro Bowler, whether it’s in name or otherwise. He’s a Hall of Famer.”
Bitonio considered retiring last offseason but came back. He admitted on Wednesday that this has been a tough season.
“It’s frustrating. It’s taken a lot,” he said. “Winning is so much better than losing. Even this last game where we were competitive and we were competing, we had a chance to go win it, it’s so much more fun when you’re out there competing to win the games.”
Bitonio, who came into the league next to Joe Thomas, has taken the mantle from him as one of the team’s spokesmen. He’s carried the weight of losing, too, though he has at least gotten to experience some success.
That’s why he’s in a unique place to weigh in on Stefanski. He’s seen the other side, where every season felt like the last two.
He’s been in end-of-season locker rooms, too, and he thinks the way the Browns continue to fight is an argument in favor of Stefanski.
“Two-time coach of the year, he has respect of his peers. He’s even-keeled,” Bitonio said. “I think you saw this last week, the team is motivated to play. We’re trying to win games. I think he has the respect of the locker room. I think it’s just a guy you keep around and you build around. And that would be my focus if I was in charge of that.”
He’s not in charge of that, of course, and Browns ownership will make a decision in a couple of weeks about the team’s future at head coach. The Haslams acknowledged during training camp that allowing Stefanski to work with a quarterback, when they find one, was part of the process.
He also added that he expected better this season than last season.
“We’ve got to do better than three (wins),” Haslam said. “To put a number on it and I don’t think we will ever do that, everybody, coaches, players, personnel, ownership, all knows that 3-14 won’t cut it. We’ve got to do better. I think we’ll know what better looks like.”
This season hasn’t been better, but there was also a wink and a nod organizationally that the weight of the Deshaun Watson contract and a shifting of the roster to younger players might mean getting to winning would take some time.
Bitonio pointed to what many pundits believed the Browns would do this season, ranking them near the bottom of the league in preseason power rankings.
“That’s not what we strive for or what we want,” Bitonio said. “When you talk about expectations and reality and things of that nature, I have the utmost respect for (Stefanski). I just think you keep allowing him to coach the Browns, I think we’ll be in a good place in the future.”
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