BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – JC Tretter remains without a team and just as vocal as ever.
And maybe that is why Tretter remains unsigned a week into the preseason.
Tretter serves as the NFLPA president and Browns left guard Joel Bitonio wondered out loud Sunday if that has teams hesitant to sign him the veteran center.
“When you have a guy that’s top-five, top-10 at center in the league and he’s not on a roster, you know, and he’s the NFLPA president and maybe some of the owners don’t appreciate what he brings to the table on certain topics when he’s trying to protect player safety and things of that nature, it seems a little suspicious to me,” Bitonio said. “But, again, I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors. I don’t know what his conversations have been with teams and stuff, but just from an outside perspective usually players that are close to the top of their game get picked up. Teams want to win in this league. So it’s an interesting topic, for sure.”
Saturday Tretter took to Twitter and criticized the field conditions at Soldier Field for the Bears preseason opener against the Chiefs in which the surface resembled a cow pasture after the stadium hosted an Elton John concert a week earlier.
“The NFL said that this field met minimum testing standards. We clearly need to re-evaluate what is an acceptable surface for players to compete on. We need new testing metrics looking at the performance and safety of every field. The NFL can and should do better.” Tretter tweeted from his verified account.
The Browns released Tretter in the spring in a salary cap move that cut over $8.2 million off the cap and to open the door for 2020 fifth-round pick Nick Harris to take over in the middle of the offensive line, but Friday night in Jacksonville Harris suffered what is expected to be a season-ending knee injury on the second snap of the game.
“It’s football so you never know,” Bitonio said of the injury. “It could happen in practice. It could happen in a preseason game. It could happen in a playoff game. It happens everywhere, kind of, so it’s one of those things where you never expect it, but it’s tough.”
The injury to Harris immediately brought Tretter to the minds of many, but it appears as if the Browns aren’t rushing to bring the veteran center, who was a reliable as the come in the five seasons he spent in Cleveland, back.
“I think he’s still a pretty good player in this league,” Bitonio said. “He played pretty well last year, and I think he’d make a team better if he’s on it, but those conversations are all above my pay grade. I think he’s a great player and any team he’d go to, he’d bring a level of professionalism to it.”
Bitonio texted with Tretter this weekend but the focus of their conversation was not on him rejoining the Browns.
“He was more concerned about Nick ad obviously he worked with Nick a lot,” Bitonio said. “He was checking in on him, making sure he was in a good head space and all of that stuff. If they ask me about [bringing Tretter back] I would tell them how it is, and I think they have experience here with JC and what he brings to the table.”
With the Browns, Tretter never missed a snap due to injury and was forced to miss one game in 2021 due to COVID.
Tampa Bay lost their veteran center Ryan Jensen, but the Buccaneers haven’t given Tretter a look either.
Cleveland is turning to another veteran, Ethan Pocic, signed this offseason as a free agent from Seattle, to fill Harris’ shoes.
“The way I see it, man, this is the NFL. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pocic said. “I don’t know if they’re going to bring someone in or whatnot, but I can tell you, I’m just going to prepare one day at a time.
I’ve been in this league five years, so I know how things work. I know you’re always competing, you know what I’m saying? So that’s my outlook, and I think competition makes you better. I really do. We’re always competing, whoever it is.”