Joel Bitonio: Browns have 'three-week block to really solidify' left tackle situation

BEREA — Joel Bitonio knows what the Browns' offensive tackle situation is supposed to look like.

The Pro Bowl left guard knows he's supposed to be lining up next to Jedrick Wills Jr. on the left side. The right tackle should be two-time All-Pro Jack Conklin , with promising second-year player Dawand Jones behind him.

That's not what the Browns offensive line has looked like over the first month of training camp. While Jones has recovered from his season-ending knee injury from last December, Wills and Conklin remain out as they continue to rehab knee injuries sustained last season.

"It's definitely different," Bitonio told the Beacon Journal during a one-on-one interview Tuesday. "I mean, you have Jed, Jack, Dawand, you think these guys can come out and be a tackle trio that, if someone goes down, you have a backup that hopefully can come in and play. But we're working through it right now."

The biggest issue has been at the spot directly to Bitonio's left. Wills' absence has created an issue that has trickled down through the rest of the offense.

James Hudson III was the first candidate to fill in for Wills, and he did so on his own for the first two-plus weeks of training camp. However, last week was the first time the Browns started working with other players along with Hudson, including veteran Germain Ifedi and free-agent signee Hakeem Adeniji, who had seven postseason starts with the Cincinnati Bengals under his belt.

That number is down to, basically, just Ifedi for now after injuries hammered the Browns at that position during their preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings. Adeniji suffered a knee injury that has landed him on injured reserve, and Hudson will be out for this week's preseason finale at the Seattle Seahawks with an ankle injury.

Ifedi, who suffered a hand injury against the Vikings, worked almost exclusively with the first unit at left tackle on Tuesday.

"We'd love to have Jed out there, left tackle solidified, and we can get all the reps with the ones," Bitonio said. "Right now in training camp, it's not too bad rotating through guys because you want to get reps with everybody anyway. I think, like I said, in a perfect world, you want one guy out there in a role, but right now we're feeling it out. We're trying to see who's going to be the best until Jed gets back."

The question remains when Wills will return. He's been at practice daily, and if often standing right behind the huddle.

However, there's been no further update from anyone associated with the Browns about an exact timetable for the fifth-year pro's return. Coach Kevin Stefanski has insisted previously that the Sept. 8 opener against the Dallas Cowboys was realistic.

For now, though, Wills won't be there when the Browns wrap up the preseason this week. That's created an issue in other aspects of what the Browns want to do in the game, specifically with regards to whether or not quarterback Deshaun Watson plays.

"I think all things factor into every decision for all of our players, truthfully," Stefanski said Tuesday. "You know, we go player by player and what we’re trying to figure out is what do they need to get ready for a 17-game season. That’s, really, every determination is based specifically on that player.”

Bitonio understands the left tackle concerns. He can even see many of those concerns himself.

However, there's one thing the six-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro guard doesn't think is being taken into consideration when assessing what's happening. That would be the player they're being asked to block fairly consistently throughout the course of training camp — Browns defensive end and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett.

"I mean, if you watch Minnesota's (joint) practice, if you watch our practices … they just had the highest-paid left tackle in the league (Christian Darrisaw), and he couldn't block Myles Garrett in practice," Bitonio said. "So if we're taking anything from our tackles not being able to block Myles, I don't think that's a fair comparison.

"So I think we're ahead of what people want to say in that sense, but we're working through it right now. We're going to see who's ready to play that Week 1, and we will have a guy out there that I'll have confidence in for sure."

It wasn't just the fact they see Garrett regularly in practice. The joint practices against the Vikings last week also required the Browns to deal with a more exotic defensive look than they might normally see.

Bitonio said Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores heavily dialed up zero blitzes against the Browns. He thought that, despite the variety of looks, most of which rarely allowed for normal one-on-one blocking, the offensive line as a whole handled things better than it may have looked in person.

What Bitonio is banking on is the calendar. Tuesday was 19 days before the Browns' opener against the Cowboys.

Those 19 days won't all be spent with the Browns practicing. However, there will be enough time spent working on their craft, with the potential Wills could be one of those players practicing, that Bitonio thinks things could find a way of working out.

"I feel comfortable with the guys who we are putting out there," Bitonio said. "I think they're learning. I think they're working, and I think we have this kind of three-week block to really solidify what we want to do."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joel Bitonio: Browns have 'three-week block to really solidify' left tackle situation