Does Joel Bitonio still have a future with the Cleveland Browns or the NFL in general?
Yesterday was a big deadline for the long-time Browns left guard, who had contemplated retirement prior to the 2025 season before opting to return. However, the extension he signed a few years ago was coming up, with Bitonio set to be a free agent this offseason. With the way Andrew Berry structures contracts, though, he often has void years built into contracts as a strategic way of bonus money getting kicked down
the road…until they are actually due. As it turns out, a lot of that void money is coming due against the cap this offseason, including with Bitonio.
Specifically, Bitonio was scheduled to have his contract void on February 15 or 16, which would mean he would become a free agent and the Browns would $23.504 million in dead money count against the cap. Those days came and went, though, and as of the morning of February 17, there was still no news on Bitonio. Some were baffled that Cleveland let the deadline go past without doing anything, which some of us speculated that maybe Cleveland on a low-key level kicked that date down the road. This afternoon, we may have gotten some clarity into things, per Nathan Zegura on the Browns’ radio show:
Zegura insinuates that the team has pushed the deadline back, and if they did so, it would make sense for them to have done so until around March 13. That would give them the option of either making Bitonio a post-June 1st release to split his dead cap hits, or sign an extension with Bitonio, or restructure his void years and let him retire after June 1st.
One thing is for sure: Cleveland has a lot to decide with their offensive line. Even though the line was met with much criticism, all five of their starting offensive line members: Cam Robinson, Joel Bitonio, Ethan Pocic, Wyatt Teller, and Jack Conklin, are set to become free agents this offseason.
