The best player to wear No. 29 in Browns history

The Cleveland Browns have had several memorable players, plays and moments in franchise history.

Otto Graham being named league MVP and winning his seventh championship in his final game in 1955. Jim Brown rushing for 1,863 yards in 1963. Brian Sipe throwing for the franchise’s only 4,000-yard season in 1980. Bernie Kosar passing for 489 yards in a double-overtime victory over the New York Jets in the playoffs.

Related: The best player to wear No. 28 in Browns history

Then there are players who, in addition to making their mark on the field, have left a lasting impression off the field like cornerback Hanford Dixon, the best player to wear No. 29 in franchise history.

The Browns selected Dixon in the first round of the 1981 NFL Draft and he moved into the starting lineup as a rookie and would go on to play in 131 games during a nine-year career, earn three Pro Bowl selections and a pair of First Team All-Pro nods.

Beginning in 1984, Dixon teamed up with Frank Minnifield to form the game’s best cornerback duo and the backbone of a Cleveland defense that helped the Browns make five consecutive playoff appearances and three AFC Championship Game appearances.

Dixon and Minnifield put opposing offenses on notice in the 1985 playoffs against the Miami Dolphins when they held the pass-catching trio of Mark Clayton, Mark Duper and Nat Moore, who had combined that season for 2,347 yards and 14 touchdowns, to just five catches, 44 yards and zero touchdowns.

Off the field, Dixon was the co-creator with Minnifield of the Dawg Pound, which started in training camp in 1985 when the duo started barking at their fellow defensive players during practice to pump them up. They carried that into the regular season and the fans soon caught on, turning Municipal Stadium into a true home-field advantage for the Browns.

The Dawg Pound in the open end of the old stadium helped to make an impact on games, such as when Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason was drowned out at the line of scrimmage during a 1987 game or when the referees were forced to move the teams to the closed end of the stadium during a game against the Denver Broncos in 1989.

Try as they might, the team’s marketing department has not been able to replicate that experience in the new stadium, but that is a topic for another day.

Following the 1989 season, the Browns let Dixon leave in free agency and he signed with the San Francisco 49ers. But a leg injury led to him announcing his retirement in training camp.

Dixon provided more than enough highlights on the field during his nine years with the Browns to earn the title of the best player to wear No. 29 in franchise history. And his role in creating the Dawg Pound just helps to cement his place in team lore.

If not Dixon, then who?

The Browns selected safety Eric Turner in the first round of the 1991 NFL Draft with the plan to make him a hard-hitting deterrent in the secondary.

Turner did not disappoint as he was selected to the league’s All-Rookie Team and added a First-Team All-Pro selection in 1994 when he led the NFL with nine interceptions. That season Turner helped to lead a Cleveland defense that allowed just 204 points, the lowest total for a 16-game season in franchise history, and 11 victories, which has only been surpassed by one Browns team since they entered the NFL in 1950.

The five years that Turner, who tragically passed away in 2000 at the age of 31, spent in Cleveland were not filled with many team highlights, but he remains one of the top players to sport No. 29 in team history.

The best of the rest

Running back Duke Johnson, who played for the Browns from 2015 to 2018 and set the single-season record for receptions by a running back with 74 in 2017, and defensive back Walt Sumner, who made 69 starts and had 15 interceptions from 1969 to 1974.