Joel Bitonio legitimately weighed his football mortality during the offseason.
As he explained at the Cleveland Browns Foundation annual golf outing on Monday, deciding whether or not to retire began with conversations with his family.
"It was truly a decision this offseason," Bitonio explained. At the end of the year I was truly deciding if I wanted to play anymore and I kind of sat at home for a month or two and was in and around and talked to my wife and we just went through the process and I was like, I can still play football at a high level. I still want to play football."
Family was the most important piece of the puzzle for Bitonio, without question. After a 3-14 season though, he also wanted to get a sense of what direction the team was heading. That's where discussions with general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski came into play.
The team's brass sold Bitonio on at least some of the offseason plans, while making it clear that they were planning on going back to Stefanski's regular scheme on offense. There was something else that really helped tip the scales for Bitonio too.
"They don't tell you who they're drafting or anything, but just the style of offense we were going to run, who we're going to try to bring in at quarterback, offensive line coach, Coach [Mike] Bloomgren was a big part of it, said Bitonio. "We went to dinner a couple of times and just talked on his philosophies, all those things played in."
Much was made last offseason of the Browns allowing legendary offensive line coach Bill Callahan to get out of his contract to join his son Brian's staff with the Tennessee Titans. There was some hope that his replacement, Andy Dickerson was bringing a refreshing perspective to the group.
Instead, Cleveland's offensive line regressed, and Dickerson wound up secretly supplanted by his own assistant Roy Istvan and eventually Mike Vrabel, who was part of the franchise as a consultant.
In steps Bloomgren, who spent the last seven years as the head coach at Rice and came highly recommended to the Browns by Callahan. As Bitonio so bluntly stated on Monday, he brings a particular type of personality to the room that he and his offensive line mates need.
"He's a true O-line coach," said Bitonio. "He gets nitty gritty in the details. He's focused every day on getting something better. You feel his energy ... The O-line coach kind of needs to be a d***. You need that, and it kind of rubs off on the guys and he's been great."
Bitonio seems to have hit it off with Bloomgren already, just during their conversations over dinner and in offensive line meetings in recent weeks. He represents a shift by the Browns to get back to what they do best, which is also why Stefanski is going back to the basics on offense.
"For me it feels like a 2020, 2021 install of the outside zone with power schemes mixed in, which I think is a strength of what our O-line does," asserted Bitonio. "Obviously we're a little bit older, but Jack [Conklin] comes from that outside zone. Wyatt [Teller] is one of the better pullers, power blockers in the league. Po [Ethan Pocic] can kind of do it all, but I think it fits us so much better."
If Bitonio's right, the Browns may be poised to surprise some people this season.
