Towards the tip of the Browns’ disappointing 2024 season, left guard Joel Bitonio said he had not yet decided whether to return for 2025 – the last yr of his current contract – or retire. As Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported just yesterday, Bitonio continues to be working through his decision, though he plans to let the team know before free agency opens next month. The 33-year-old blocker confirmed retirement stays “inside the realm of possibilities” (via Zac Jackson of The Athletic).
Like teammate Myles Garrett, Bitonio said he wanted to listen to the Browns’ plans for a return to contention in 2025, including their quarterback strategy. Nevertheless, he also made clear that his decision to maintain playing or hang up his cleats would primarily be told by health and family considerations.
Retaining a player pretty much as good as Bitonio on a $1.26MM base salary and $3MM roster bonus would doubtlessly be a welcome development for the Browns. Indeed, Cleveland has a serious query mark at left tackle – no matter whether Dawand Jones is medically cleared in time for training camp, as expected – and the team must also navigate Garrett’s trade request and meaningfully address the quarterback position despite having the second-worst cap situation within the league as of the time of this writing.
Previous reports indicated the Browns will sign a veteran QB in free agency even in the event that they plan to pick one in April’s draft, and Kirk Cousins was mentioned as one FA possibility. The incontrovertible fact that Browns HC Kevin Stefanski worked as Cousins’ quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator from 2018-19 is a driving force behind Cousins-Cleveland speculation, as is the incontrovertible fact that the cap-strapped Browns could likely sign the 36-year-old for the veteran minimum. Albert Breer of SI.com confirms Cousins’ contract with the Falcons includes offset language, meaning that if he’s released as expected, the one way he’ll land a deal in excess of the minimum in 2025 is that if one other team believes he’s value greater than the $27.5MM for which Atlanta is already on the hook (which is extremely unlikely, and Cousins has no real incentive to hunt a better payout and reduce his variety of potential suitors).
Breer appears to agree that the signs pointing to an accord between Cousins and the Browns are real. He also expects the team to draft a QB no matter whether Cousins or a distinct free agent is added to the combination. Cleveland, which presently holds the No. 2 overall pick within the draft, is already assured of landing either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders – the highest prospects in an admittedly maligned class of collegiate QBs – though GM Andrew Berry has said he believes the category includes starting-caliber passers outside of Ward and Sanders.
The Browns have understandably stated they don’t need to trade Garrett, but in the event that they reverse course and unload him, they might even have a call to make on their top cornerback, Denzel Ward. Ward, who’s under club control through 2027 but who has no guaranteed salary as a result of him beyond 2025, has said Garrett’s trade request has a “huge impact” on his own future (thereby suggesting he may very well be planning his own exit strategy if Garrett were to be dealt).
For what it’s value, Ward’s fellow CB, Greg Newsome II, previously said he desires to remain with the Browns for the long haul, a desire that he recently reiterated (via Cabot). He said he would attempt to talk Garrett out of his trade request, as he believes the team is only a quarterback away from being a legitimate contender.
Newsome is as a result of play out the 2025 campaign on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, which can pay him over $13MM. His hope to be a long-term member of the Browns notwithstanding, he indicated he’s on the lookout for a bigger role within the defense.
In 2024, the previous first-round pick played a career-low 70% of Cleveland’s defensive snaps, as Martin Emerson – who’s extension-eligible for the primary time this offseason – was Ward’s primary partner on the boundaries. That left Newsome to man the slot, and with opposing offenses favoring two-tight end sets, he didn’t see as much motion as he would have liked.
“[T]here were games I used to be on the sector 25% and 30% of the sport, and as a football player, I feel like fans don’t understand, you may’t get in a rhythm for being on the sector, out of fifty snaps, 15 snaps,” Newsome said. “That’s not the way you play football. And that’s never what I’ve needed to do in my profession up to now, so this was the primary yr of that and it was obviously somewhat frustrating, but I feel we’ll figure this out.”
Newsome added that there have been no real extension talks between his camp and the Browns this offseason. Such conversations is probably not at the highest of Berry’s agenda in the meanwhile, and if and when substantive talks do happen, Newsome’s recent trouble together with his left hamstring – he had surgery on it prior to last summer’s training camp after which reinjured it in December – can be raised.
Nonetheless, Newsome said he’s fully healthy and is able to prove as much in what may very well be a platform yr.
