Joel Bitonio may be playing the final two games of his NFL career over the next 10 days, but he hopes the same isn't true for his coach in Cleveland.
Kevin Stefanski finds himself on the hot seat after another forgettable campaign that has seen the Browns match their three wins from last season with two left to play. The story has been familiar: Instability under center has constrained the Browns offense and asked the defense to carry the team on a weekly basis, leading to a number of close losses with few signs of significant progress.
Bitonio knows it all too well, having began his career during Cleveland's most recent trudge near the bottom of the NFL before playing a key part in the Browns' resurgence, a turnaround that occurred under Stefanski's watch. But whenever progress isn't consistently demonstrated, folks come calling for the coach's job.
Whether he's around to see it or not in 2026, the 12-year veteran believes the Browns shouldn't make a drastic change in leadership, regardless of recent results. The previous successes prove his point.
"I mean, you saw him in 2023, right?" Bitonio said Wednesday, via the Akron Beacon Journal. "We had five different quarterbacks start games or six or however many it was. And then the last two years, it's been a rotation of quarterbacks. And we're working. We have a couple young rookie quarterbacks that are playing and showing promise. But until that quarterback position is solved in the NFL, it is hard to win games.
"It is the most important position in sports. And you're trying to build a defense that has shown that they can be elite and you want to build around these great quarterbacks."
Cleveland's descent into all-too-familiar irrelevance can be directly traced to the franchise's decision to trade three first-round picks for quarterback Deshaun Watson, then immediately sign him to a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million deal. That move also forced the Browns to part with former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield, who has since resurrected his career in Tampa Bay, where he's now seen as the Buccaneers' franchise quarterback at 30 years old. To top it off, Watson's massive contract has become a financial albatross that will affect the Browns' cap situation after the deal mercifully expires following the 2026 season, accounting for smaller cap hits in 2027 and 2028.
With Watson existing on the roster only as a massive financial commitment, the Browns' decision-makers have had their hands tied. That's how they've ended up cycling through a number of quarterbacks and spent the majority of the 2025 season starting two rookies under center.
It might also explain why they're still employed. As Bitonio noted, Cleveland's defense has proven itself as one of the best units in the NFL in 2025. The same cannot be said about the Browns offense, but a productive 2025 draft added emerging youngsters Carson Schwesinger, Quinshon Judkins and Harold Fannin Jr. to the roster.
Some may believe another similarly effective draft could pull the Browns out of the swamp of mediocrity. That might be what convinces leadership to retain Stefanski.
"Where we're at right now, we don't want to be there," Bitonio said. "But I think if we get the right pieces and we keep improving, I think that's a guy you can build around. Two-time coach of the year, he has respect of his peers. He's even-keeled. 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."
If anybody knows what an effective coach looks like, it's Bitonio, an All-Pro guard who played for the likes of Mike Pettine, Hue Jackson, Gregg Williams (on an interim basis) and Freddie Kitchens before Stefanski arrived. Bitonio played a key part in helping the Browns reach the postseason for the first time since 2002 and was on the field when Cleveland narrowly lost to the eventual AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020 season's Divisional Round.
Even if he doesn't decide to play a 13th NFL season, he knows what the Browns should do and believes they're on the right track.
"I mean, I think there's also a history," Bitonio said. "Some of the other coaches that I've played for did, they had three wins. 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. We are not where we want to be. We expect to be higher.
"But if you want to go look back at the preseason rankings, I think everybody had us at 31 or 32, and that's not what we strive for or what we want. When you talk about expectations and reality and things of that nature, I have the utmost respect for him. I just think you keep allowing him to coach the Browns, I think we'll be in a good place in the future."
