Cleveland Browns: 5 pleasant surprises heading into Preseason Week 2

Joel Bitonio’s performance early at left tackle

If there’s any knock on the offseason put together by general manager John Dorsey, it has to be his handling of the left tackle spot. After Joe Thomas hung up his cleats, they didn’t fully address the opening. Cleveland seemed content to slide Shon Coleman over from right tackle — where he struggled — and just hope for the best. It took about a week into camp to see that was a bad idea.

From there, Cleveland had to turn to Joel Bitonio. Their left guard moved over one spot and rookie Austin Corbett took his place. Corbett should be fine at left guard and had his moments — both good and bad — in his debut. The real concern is how Bitonio would do at protecting the blind side given he hadn’t done so since his collegiate days.

It was a small sample size, but the coaching staff believes the big guy held his own as reported by the team’s website:

"“I think he did a good job. He kept himself between the rusher and the quarterback. From that standpoint, it was good,” coach Hue Jackson said via Patrick Maks of ClevelandBrowns.com. “I think there are still some fundamental things he has to continue to work at – he will be the first to tell you that – where he places his hands, his sets and those things.”"

Should Bitonio continue to man the spot, he will only get better at it. It was just nice to see it in action and have the positive reviews.