Browns Guard Joel Bitonio Accuses Eagles Of Taking Cheap Shots At Deshaun Watson In Joint Practice

The Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns held joint practices on Tuesday, and at least one Browns player didn't like the way the Eagles were treating his QB, Deshaun Watson.

Browns guard Joel Bitonio said that things got a bit nasty during practice between the two teams.

"I mean it’s just in our practice, you protect the quarterback,” he said in a video posted by Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot. “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.”

That tracks with some of the reports of some nastiness between the two teams. There were a few instances in practice when players needed to be separated. In another incident, Eagles defensive end reportedly knocked the ball out of Watson's hand.

Although, I don't know if that's a cheap shot. Some might see it as a perfect illustration of why Nick Sirianni hammers home the importance of ball security.

“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 said in another clip posted by Cleveland.com's Dan Labbe.

“I don’t know the exact situation, but there were a couple shots today where we’re trying to make sure we’re getting the best out of practice and not fighting. But it was just a little heated second day. It always gets a little bit more fired up.”

We'll see if any animosity carries over from the practice field to Lincoln Financial Field. The Browns and Eagles play on Thursday night.

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