The Browns and Eagles have spent the week squaring off in joint practices ahead of their Thursday night preseason matchup. The Tuesday session between the two teams got a bit chippy, as is the nature of joint practices.
Even so, Browns offensive lineman Joel Bitonio wasn't happy with the overly physical nature of the practice. The 31-year-old made his feelings known when he called the Eagles out for taking some "cheap shots" during the session.
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“We’re going into this week trying to get better in practice and work and sometimes there are some cheap shots and things like that where you want to defend yourself,” Bitonio told reporters. "I don’t know the exact situation, but there was a couple shots today where we’re trying to make sure we’re getting the best out of practice and not fighting."
Joel Bitonio on practice getting chippy today. pic.twitter.com/pmr2Zm46h0
— Dan Labbe (@dan_labbe) August 15, 2023
Bitonio conceded that joint practices often get "a little heated [on the] second day." Still, he was frustrated with the Eagles' antics, especially some of Philadelphia's hits on Browns starting quarterback Deshaun Watson.
“I mean it’s just in our practice, you protect the quarterback,” Bitonio said, per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “You don’t want to come close to the quarterback, you don’t want to take cheap shots, things like that where there might’ve been a couple of questionable plays both ways today."
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While Bitonio was bothered by the Eagles' treatment of Watson, the quarterback didn't seem to mind. He focused more on defending his performance at practice on X (formerly Twitter), as demonstrated by his quote tweet of Eagles reporter Eliot Shorr-Parks.
Lol 🧢 https://t.co/HRSPblMAw8
— Deshaun Watson (@deshaunwatson) August 16, 2023
So, it doesn't seem like Cleveland will be out for revenge when the Browns face the Eagles on Thursday night. But Bitonio did concede that he was happy Tuesday's session was the last joint practice between the two sides.
"I mean that’s why you do two days," he said, per Cleveland.com, "because three days it’d be a blood bath the last day. Even two days gets a little bit chippy the second day. You go back, you watch the film, you’re like, oh, we’ve got to do this better, or they got to do this better, and the next day’s going to be a little bit more ramped up."
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"We don't wanna fight out here," he added. "We wanna get better. The two teams are competing. Things are gonna get fired up. It happens."
