The lone bright spot
for many years, Phil Dawson is the easy choice for uniform No. 4.
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
Editor’s note: The NFL Draft is over. No one is
completely sure when training camp and the regular season will begin for the
NFL. So we may be entering an NFL quiet period that is more quiet than usual. To help fill in that space, we are
starting a series to determine the best player to wear each jersey number
in Cleveland Browns history. Today we present the
best player to wear uniform No. 4.
The Cleveland Browns have not given their fans much to cheer about
for the past two decades.
But from 1999 through 2012, placekicker Phil Dawson was one
of the few bright spots, which makes him the clear choice as the best player to wear uniform No. 4
in franchise history.
There was little indication that Dawson was going to be
anything special when the Browns signed him as a free agent in 1999. He had
gone undrafted out of the University in Texas the prior year, and had brief
looks from the Oakland Raiders and New England Patriots.
Dawson struggled his first season with the Browns, converting
just 67 percent of his field goal attempts, but once he settled in he became
one of the best kickers in team history.
According to the Browns
website, at the time of his retirement in 2019 Dawson was
second on the franchise list with 1,271 points, and third in games played with
215. He holds franchise
records for:
- most career field
goals (305)
- highest career field
goal percentage (84.0)
- most field goals in a
season (30 in 2008)
- highest field goal
percentage in a season (93.5 in 2012)
- field goals in a game
(six on Nov. 5, 2006)
- most consecutive field
goals made (29)
- most consecutive games
with a field goal (23)
Dawson is also the only
placekicker in franchise history to be selected to the Pro Bowl. (Hall of
Famer Lou Groza made the Pro Bowl nine times, but as a tackle, not a
placekicker.)
One of the highlights of Dawson’s career that stands out is his
game-winning field goal against the Baltimore Ravens in 2007:
That game was exciting, but it was also the type of kick that
most NFL kickers could convert. Dawson was like Rambo - “what others call hell,
he calls home” - however, as he was at his best when the weather was at its
worse, as he showed later in the 2007 season against the Buffalo Bills:
Dawson also played for the San Francisco 49ers from
2013 to 2016 and the Arizona Cardinals from 2017 to 2018. He played
in 305 regular season games and, according to the team’s website, at the time
of his retirement, Dawson was eighth on the NFL’s all-time list in field goals
made (441), 11th in points scored (1,847) and 16th in field goal percentage
(83.8).
Honorable mention: Britton
Colquitt, who was Cleveland’s punter from 2016 through
2018. Colquitt joined the Browns as a free agent in 2016 after
signing a one-year contract. He performed well enough that season to earn a
contract extension and survived the Hue Jackson era.