Guard

Joel Bitonio

No. 75 · 13th season

Seven years straight, then just like that — Joel Bitonio's name comes off the list

Some streaks end with a trade or an injury or a dramatic send-off. This one ended quietly, the way most careers eventually do.

Joel Bitonio spent the better part of a decade as one of the most reliable offensive linemen in the NFL — the kind of player Cleveland Browns fans pointed to when they needed to name something the organization got right. For seven straight years, that reputation was official enough that ESPN's annual Top-10 player rankings kept his name in there, year after year, representing a franchise that has had very few constants.

This year, his name is gone. Bitonio is no longer with the Browns, and the streak is over at seven.

Seven consecutive years on a list like that is a career's worth of credibility. For a franchise that has cycled through quarterbacks, coaches, and front offices, Bitonio showing up on that list annually was its own kind of continuity — a quiet proof that someone in the building had done something right.

What he does next, nobody knows yet. But that streak is now a finished thing, and finished things have a way of clarifying just how rare they were.

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