BEREA, Ohio -- Browns left tackle Joe Thomas, who knows a thing or two about good offensive linemen, had high praise for the man who plays next to him, Joel Bitonio, back in training camp. He called him one of the best guards in football.

"He brings an energy and an enthusiasm to the offense that can kind of help lift all the boats on the offense," Thomas said back in August. "He's like the tide. When he comes in, everyone just gets lifted."

Bitonio was named a second alternate at guard for the 2018 Pro Bowl in Orlando.

"It is a pretty cool honor," Bitonio said. "Anytime other players, coaches and fans recognize you a little bit, it is pretty cool."

It's a particularly significant honor for Bitonio, who has ended his last two seasons on injured reserve, first with an ankle injury in 2015 and with a Lisfranc injury in 2016.

Back in August, during training camp, Bitonio spoke with cleveland.com about finally being healthy. Unfortunately, Bitonio suffered an injury shortly after our interview that cost him part of training camp. Now that he has been named a Pro Bowl alternate, here is a look back at our conversation.

-----

Bitonio hurt his foot on the final play of the first half in a loss to New England in 2016, a Hail Mary attempt by quarterback Charlie Whitehurst that fell incomplete. Bitonio came away after the play hopping up and down on his left leg.

"I got my foot stepped on and I tried to yank it out and I just felt something kind of go in there," Bitonio told cleveland.com. "I didn't fall to the ground, but I also didn't put weight on it and I jogged in at halftime."

He managed to play the entire second half following the injury and said that he noticed he couldn't drive off the foot like normal when he was run blocking. The Browns were trailing, so they spent much of the second half throwing. Bitonio gutted the game out, thinking it would be an injury that, at worst, might keep him out a few weeks.

A couple days later, he was having surgery for the first time in his life.

"It happened so quick," Bitonio said. "I think in non-football life, you schedule a surgery, it takes a few weeks. I got hurt, we got a second opinion, they're like, let's do surgery on Tuesday. It takes a couple days and then it's kind of a blur."

The previous year, in 2015, Bitonio suffered two separate ankle injuries, both against the Bengals. The first came in a Thursday night loss in Cincinnati and then, a month and a day later, he injured the other ankle, ending his season. It was a shocking turn for a player who, to that point, hadn't missed a snap in his career. It didn't help that he was playing directly next to Thomas, one of the most durable players in league history who played 10,363 consecutive offensive snaps before suffering a torn triceps earlier this season.

"I got rolled up on bad against Cincinnati and it hurt like a mother," Bitonio said, "but I was like, Joe hasn't missed a freakin' snap, I can't tap myself out for this."

Bitonio managed to finish that game, too, before being forced out for the remainder of the month.

The toughness Bitonio has shown through all of this comes from his late father, Mike, who died when Bitonio was in college at Nevada. Mike was a bare knuckle MMA fighter in the '90s. He laid carpet and flooring for a living. He pushed his son to be the best in whatever sports he participated, rebounding for him on the basketball court or taking him to the football field to work on his speed. If Bitonio was being lazy on a Saturday, his dad would ask him if he'd done anything that day. It's a subtle message from the toughest guy Bitonio knew.

"You're going to find something to do," Bitonio said.

His dad lived long enough to see his son earn a scholarship but never got to see him play college football. Bitonio says he thinks about his dad prior to games, where he would be sitting, what he would be thinking.

"I know he'd be the biggest Cleveland Browns fan of all time," Bitonio said. "He was my No. 1 fan, No. 1 supporter, and that's what I want to take from it."

The Browns picked Bitonio No. 35 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, a rare gem by former General Manager Ray Farmer. It has been quite the roller coaster since then. He started with the high of beginning his career on a team that went 7-4 before collapsing. People around the league were taking notice. The next year they went 3-13, the injuries started and the entire structure of the Browns front office and coaching staff changed. Since then, the team has won one game, a game that Bitonio had to watch on TV because of his foot surgery.

Then it was back up this past offseason when Bitonio was rewarded with a contract extension, a $47.5 million deal that included $23 million guaranteed. It caught him off guard, as he admitted that he wouldn't have been surprised if the team wanted to wait to talk extension. He hadn't even started running yet.

"It was unbelievable faith in me," Bitonio said, "and I appreciate them every second and I want to prove to them that they made the best decision they possibly could."

That second contract puts the generally modest Bitonio -- he told Thomas on the left tackle's podcast that his first big purchase after he got drafted was a suit -- in postion to take care of his mom, Debbie, his sister, Katie and his brother, Luke, as well as securing the future for him and his wife, Courtney. The two met in 2009 and married in 2016. She's been there with him on this entire ride.

"I knew I was going to marry her once I got to the NFL," Bitonio said, "but when you officially do it and you have a wife, it's your other half, like it's part of you. When I can go home, it's me and her against the world, it's us."

With Thomas out for the season and his future in question, Bitonio has started to emerge as one of the young leaders on a young team. No one can replace the presence of Thomas, but Bitonio has the combination of skill and personality to at least fill part of the void.

"I want to be a leader for this team," he said. "I want to be a guy that's working hard, a guy that the young guys can look up to and be like, man, this guy got drafted here, this guy worked hard, this guy put in the time and they're going to reward him for being here."

A little over four months after our interview, Bitonio was standing in front of the media in the Browns locker room talking about being named an alternate for the Pro Bowl.

"Not being able to play the last couple of years and to finish the seasons off, to come back and so far, have a healthy season and get recognized is a pretty cool honor," he said on Wednesday. "Obviously, I would trade it for some wins right now, but it was cool to see."

It's the next part of a pretty nice comeback story.

"I'm in a happy place," Bitonio said during training camp, "a team that trusts me that wants me to be here, with a wife that I love and I want to spend my life with, and now I've just got to play football and stay healthy."

So far, so good.

-----

Follow me: on Twitter | on Facebook